Here is How to Make Money As a Blogger

There are bloggers out there raking in sweet money via blogging, with the average bloggers earning up to $32,800 in a year! To be sure, beginner bloggers won’t be getting that kind of money at first as it is not as easy as it is appealing. Still, there are strategies that beginners can follow at the initial stage, which will help speed up the earning process. And we are here to tell you all about it. Before we get to the know-how, you must be equipped with the basics of building a good blog.

What Do You Need for Generating Income Through Blogging?

1. Start a Blog

 For a step-by-step process, check out Udemy’s thorough guide on how to start blogging.

You’ll have to actually have a blog to make money from a blog, duh! For many beginners out there, ‘good’ isn’t even a concern as they’re usually busy fretting about creating even the most basic blog. If you are a content writer worried about not knowing enough or more like not being ‘technical enough’ to create a blog, stop right there! Free blogging sites like WordPress, Wix, site123, etc., are good kick-starters for noob bloggers. 

2. Create useful content

As much as we avoid clichéd statements, here we go again: Content is King. The kind of content you put up on your blog would depend on what the blog is about. For that, you can consider these two major question:

• Niche: What are you going to write about?
• Choose your audience: Who are you going to write for?

Once you’ve decided on your subject and target demography, ask yourself:

• Is your content what the readers were looking for or would usually look out for?
• Would your audience find the content useful?
• Does the content provide value; bring changes to their lives – even in the slightest or most bizarre ways?

Ensure you answer ‘yes’ to all of the considerations above. Congrats, you’ve got the basic elements of ‘good content’ figured.

3. Find Readers

As good a content piece you might come up with for your blog, what good is it if no one sees it? It’s like making a commercial, but there’s nobody to see. Having a readership is essential to make money out of your blog. So, the more audience you have, the better and vice versa. Once you’re set with an awesome blog, go get readers to your page. Don’t worry about not having good networks to begin with. You simply have to actively target the places where your potential audience is likely to be around; blogs, forums, podcasts, community, and social networks. Create your presence in those sites by engaging with the community within the platform. Leave comments, join discussions, share links, info, anything really, that might relate with the people there.

Email lists are great ways to gain new audiences and communicate with old ones. The objective is to get more exposure for your blog.

4. Keep readers engaged

Remember that fact about content being king, well here’s another fact: Engagement is Queen – trite but true. Content and engagement go hand-in-hand in the process of monetizing your blog.

You’ve built a great blog, got visitors, and now you want to make sure they stay on for as long as your blog exists. Active engagement is essential for you to retain your already found readers. You’ll need to make them feel valued to keep them coming back for what you have to offer. Gain the readers’ attention and their love and do so by showing you care for them. So how do you keep readers engaged? It could be as simple as replying to their comments. A loyal audience won’t only help you bring in money but also bring in more readers through recommendations and sharing.

And finally…comes the money-making part. 

Readying Your Blog for Revenue 

Once you’ve got a solid foundation on blogging, your blog is open for business. There are several income opportunities you can explore, though not every one of them might be suitable for your blog. The way income streams work would depend on blog content, audience interest, size, and location.

Some common income methods for bloggers to begin with:

1. Affiliates

To use an ‘affiliate’ simply means you associate your blog with service providers and thus expose them to your readers and recommend their products to your readers. In this way, you get a commission for every conversion done through your affiliate link. Amazon Affiliate is a good way to begin affiliate marketing on your blog. If you have no clue yet about how you’re going to go about it, familiarize yourself with an in-depth beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing.

2. Advertisements

This is basically selling digital space and exposure to advertisers. You can allow advertisers to place their ads on your blog and charge them for it. Online advertising systems like Google AdSense, Infolinks, Mediavine, etc., will help you manage the ad hosting according to your blog content and audience. Do check out the pros and cons of each major ad network to see what’s best for your blog.

Another important aspect of choosing advertisement as a source of income is the pricing system. There are four basic ad conversion models:

3. Sponsorships

Here, you’ll be sponsored directly by a brand to promote their product without the involvement of advertisers. Sponsored content could be:

• Promotional post(s) wherein the content is by or for the sponsoring brand – articles, listicles, infographics, links to online courses, etc.
• Sweepstakes where you give away the sponsor brand’s products/services.

4. Leverage Influencers

Your blog can also make money by hosting virtual summits, webinars, conferences, and the likes, which will be of great value to the participants. Reach out to experts and influencers who can offer useful insights for the visitors and bring credibility to your blog.

5. Sell your own services

Instead of promoting a brand’s products or hosting advertisements, why not make money with your skills through your own blog? As a content writer, you may offer to write various contents for a certain rate or start coaching if you have the required caliber; or sell e-books of your work. Do make sure these are high-value content pieces which the buyers will find worth their money.

Pro tip: Start exploring revenue opportunities once you’ve got your blog going. Don’t wait to attain a high traffic status. Take a chance; reach out to brands. With quality content and proper engagement, you might get a sponsor despite low traffic.

Guides, tutorials, and expert tips can help a great deal in designing a blog that’ll help you gain passive income. However, as simple as it may seem, this kind of pursuit takes time and consistent efforts for it to work. So, don’t be disheartened if your blogging doesn’t bring you the desired income as quickly as you might have liked it to. No matter, keep hustling!