When you think of making money, you typically think of a “regular job” that you have to get dressed for and leave the house so that you can complete your shift. Combining the internet and your creativity is the perfect recipe for unique venues you can use to make some extra cash or even replace your income.
Making money online can be a bit tricky due to the abundance of “scams” however when you are in total control of your profits, you can safeguard yourself from problems like that. One legitimate way to make money online is by blogging.
What is a blog?
Before you get started blogging, it’s crucial to understand what that means. There’s a good chance that you’ve already been to a blog and didn’t know it, especially if you’ve searched for a recipe or a “how-to” tutorial online.
A blog is a collection of web pages or a website that’s kept up to date regularly. Blogs can be created for personal or business use and make a great resource to a website for SEO purposes. When you post content, it’s called a blog post, these are typically tagged or categorized so that your audience can find relevant information to their queries.
How do you start a blog?
Getting started is the most exciting part of any project and blogging is no exception. The first thing you’ll want to do before you begin is to identify what kind of content and visual theme your blog will be. After you’ve decided what you will be posting about, you can think of a fitting name. Next, you can decide where to host your blog, some popular sites are WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly. Upon signing up for your blog you can create or select a theme that will fit your content and aesthetic goals.
Ways to monetize your blog
Now that you have your structure, it’s time to make that blog work for you!
1. Write paid reviews
This method of making money from your blog requires you to liaise with product companies. You can approach these companies directly or sometimes if you’re lucky or an influencer, they will reach out to you on social media. How this works is, you can make money from writing a quality in-depth review on your blog. Often you can potentially receive the product at little to no cost as well!
2. Sell your services
If you have a valuable skill, you can get paid for your time by using your blog to advertise your services. You can offer services in tutoring, consulting, life-coaching, business advising, etc. It’ll be mutually beneficial – you’ll be helping someone and also be compensated!
3. Promote affiliate products
Word of mouth marketing is one of the best ways to get a brand out there, and you can make money while doing it! If there is an item or product that you really enjoy enough to endorse this is where you can shine. You can write about a product or item you love, and encourage your readers to purchase this product using your affiliate code. For every sale, you can earn a portion of the revenue.
4. Sell some ad space
Selling ad space is one of the first places bloggers look to start earning some money. This is something that can be immediate if you are already a strong influencer, or it will take time to build up. There are a few ways to sell ad space on your blog, some of them are Google AdSense, Amazon affiliate program, direct advertising, and various other ad networks.
5. Online courses
If you’re certified to teach a course, this is another area you can use to make money with a blog. There are several plugins for your blogs that you can use to help create online classes, like Udemy, Skillshare, and Zippy Courses. Some of these are pretty user friendly and don’t require in-depth coding skills.
6. Become an author
You might just have some untapped writing talent that hasn’t been discovered yet! Writing a book can be a rewarding experience that can sometimes yield surprising results. You can find an editor, publish, and then sell your book on your blog.
7. Premium or gated content
Many bloggers offer expert advice, books, or videos that users pay for in addition to free articles on their blogs. This is an opportunity to create membership levels and have premium paid content to offer your audience. This can be set up with plugins like MemberPress.
8. Sell some merchandise
If you are an influencer, public figure, or even a popular graphic designer you can sell merchandise. Adding an eCommerce store or shop to your blog is fairly simple and you can start generating some digital sales.
How Often Should You Update Your Blog?
Content is everything, especially when it comes to blogging. You should consider setting up a regular update schedule to keep your audience engaged. There is no “one size fits all” answer for this, it depends on what type of content you will be promoting and how much time you have to dedicate to your craft.
Some bloggers tend to update their sites on a daily basis. Updating your blog on a daily basis can yield some great benefits like search engine optimization and frequent fresh content for your readers. The drawback to daily updates is how much time it can take. You might find yourself overextending and running out of time to create quality content. This strategy is best suited for those who make a full-time income off of blogging.
Most beginner bloggers find it efficient to have multiple blog posts per week. This allows you to curate or create some great quality content while also giving yourself balance and the ability to focus on other areas for monetization. The best way to see how often you should update your blog depends on your audience, gauging their reactions and when they interact with your blog will be key to figuring out the best frequency to post.
How to Market Your Blog
Out of everything you’ve learned about making money with blogging, one of the most – if not the most important piece of the blog are your readers. Cultivating a following and a fan base is one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of becoming a blogger. It starts with having great content, and knowing how to get that content in front of the right audience.
Who is your audience?
The first step in marketing your blog is identifying who your readers are going to be. This is going to help you hone in on the content that you are going to create. The more relevant the content is to your readers, the more engagement and impressions you will get, which in turn should help with generating revenue.
Make it easy to navigate
Staying organized is key when it comes to your blog posts. Create different categories that make sense for the type of content you post. This will help you almost develop a catalog of content for your readers to easily browse. The easier your blog is to navigate, the easier it is for your readers to find what they need and stay on your site. Keep accessibility in mind as well, be sure to use alt text for your images so that screen readers can be utilized for people that need them.
Keep mobile browsing in mind
Readability is also very important when it comes to digesting your blog posts. Be sure to break up long walls of text so that your content is easy to read through on a smaller screen like a mobile phone. This will make your posts more visually appealing to your readers.
Cross-promote your content
If a blog gets published on the internet and no one is around to read it is it still a blog? Yes, of course, it is but it is much more helpful to your readers if they know you’ve written an update. After you publish your post, it’s a good idea to make it shareable and promote it on your social media profiles. This also allows your readers to share your content with their network as well and could introduce you to a new audience.
Network
Engagement creates engagement, explore other blogs and engage with the authors. You can strike up a conversation, obtain some valuable insights from another perspective, and potentially gain a new reader just from interacting with someone else’s blog. Another great opportunity that can arise from visiting another person’s blog is the potential to collaborate and gain exposure to another network of readers.
In Conclusion
How to make money with a blog? At the end of the day, with a little hard work, organization, and creativity you can make money online with a blog. Perfecting the art of content creation, marketing, and audience retention will be an ongoing process that should yield some great results. The important piece is to stay consistent with your efforts and be sure to stay as responsive as you can be when you gain new readers and visitors.