A Guide to Make Money Blogging (Secret: It’s Not Easy)

If you are reading this, we have started making this blog popular. This also means the blog has started its first steps towards generating revenue for us (a blog must reach its intended audience, if it has to make money online).

Everyone who blogs starts wondering how to make money blogging once they realize the blog readership is increasing and people are engaging with its posts. To be honest, we did too, and this article is based on our learning while we set about making money from our blog.

It’s like the blog’s biography from a ‘money’ point of view.

Is it really possible?

Yes, it is.

Professionals actually do know how to get paid for blogging and they earn plenty of money for their efforts. (We are not joking!)

In the last decade, internet has spread exponentially. It has reached almost every home in all the developed and developing countries across the globe. According to the Digital in 2018 suite of reports from We are Social, there are now more than 4 billion people around the world using the internet. This means, you have an audience of billions of people that you can target with the content of your blogs. A large audience means you can make more money.

Audience = Money.

We hate to sound mercenary, but that is the way it is.

Once you have an audience, and the audience size is growing every month, and it is sustainable, you just have to implement strategies to monetize your blog. If you can do that, there is no limit to the money you can make through your blogging efforts.

The Secret: How Bloggers Make Money?

People keep wondering about how bloggers earn money. Allow us to whisper in your ears some secret ways through which bloggers earn revenue.

Alright bring your ear closer. Now hear these words very carefully – “The secret to making money with your blog is………. there is no secret.”

Yes, it is simply identifying monetizing opportunities and making the most of them. And it is not easy.

Affiliate Marketing

For those of you who don’t know what is Affiliate Marketing, let us simplify it for you. Affiliate marketing is advertising someone else’s product or service on your blog. Sign up for the right affiliate marketing program and you improve your chances of readers’ clicking on the affiliate link that is integrated in the blog content.

You will be paid a commission for that.

In order to optimize your affiliate marketing revenue, try to create posts that are aligned with the products/services sold by that particular business. If you don’t want to do that, just create quality blog posts and keep increasing blog readership. The trust your target readers have towards your blog will rub off on your affiliate marketing efforts. This article on affiliate marketing is a good read on the subject.

The key here is to make sure that the products and services whose links are added to your content are in some way associated with the overall premise of your blog and the content on it.

The more the number of readers you have, the higher your revenue from affiliate marketing!

Recurring Revenue

You can earn recurring revenue for your blog, if you can manage to turn your regular readers into regular subscribers. Once people have read your quality content, they will want to read more. Anticipating this, you can make them pay for access to more content, call it ‘premium content’. Make sure they know they are getting something extra if they pay more. Say you are posting some amazing articles on your blog, but you create a category called premium content, that includes access to even better researched articles, reports, infographics, white papers etc.; it is this content that will generate recurring revenue for you.

You can use a timely subscription model and make people pay at regular intervals. Keep churning out quality content so that your readers’ get their money’s worth.

Product Selling

This method has great money-making potential. You can sell products on your blog to convert your loyal readers into a consistent revenue stream. You need to convince your readers to buy a particular product. If you are able to do that successfully, you will be able to generate a good amount of money.

While this might sound easy, it isn’t. What you are essentially trying to do is convince buyers that the products you are selling can be trusted to deliver? How? Because your blog has been delivering quality content for a long time and if readers trust your blog, they will transfer this trust to the products you are selling.

So be very choosy about what you are selling. Don’t risk your blog’s reputation by selling run of the mill products that are of doubtful quality.

Advertising

Allowing advertisers to use a blog as a promotional vehicle is a fairly old practice and has helped bloggers earn continuing and sustainable revenue over a long period of time. In fact, it is the most popular way to monetize your blog.

The two major ways of advertising on your blog are:

1 .CPC or PPC Advertisements

Cost per Click or Pay per Click advertisements are generally banners which are displayed on your blog pages, right at top of the page or on the side. You are paid when your readers click on those advertisements. Google AdSense is the most popular service you can use to serve such ads to your visitors. Even if your blog is new , you can still get Google AdSense approval. You can therefore start earning right from the word go.

2. CPM Advertisements

Cost per Mile (CPM) advertisements are ads for which you are given a fixed amount. You earn per impression for you ad, which means even if readers don’t click on your ad, you still get money. The CPM agency will recruit “advertisers” that is you, and will pay you for placing an ad on your blog. The pay will be per thousand impressions. So, for every thousand impressions, you will get a certain amount of money.

The amount of money you earn is directly proportional to the number of people who visit your blog.

There are many other ways through which you can make money blogging. Take a good look at the image above and explore all the ways you can; try not to miss out on any possible revenue stream. The more you can monetize your blog, the better it is for you.

Moving on, I know there is a questions that’s eating you, – “How much money does a blogger actually make?”

This is a very relevant question. Let’s take a look.

How much do bloggers earn? Like, really?

This is a question that all of you want to know the answer to. Since you are going to invest your time and efforts in creating and maintaining a blog, this is one of the most important issues you are going to deal with.

There is no such thing as too much money.

If you take pains to produce quality content for others’ consumption, you deserve some payback.

Before you begin blogging, you must have a clear picture of your expected revenue. So, how much money can you make blogging?

You might be able to earn $24,086 on an average, but only if you work seriously towards making money from your blog.  If you don’t know the technicalities of how to start a blog site and make money online, you probably won’t be able to earn much. Many bloggers earn less than $1000 in a year. If you want to earn more than that, you need to work sincerely towards your goal. The thing is, blogging sounds easy but it is not. That is the reason you need some professional tips (and implement them) to ensure adequate income generation from your blog.

Making money is an art and working is an art and good business is the best art.
– Andy Warhol

If you want to know some effective techniques of how to start a blog and make money, follow our step-by step guide.

The No-Nonsense Guide to Earn Money from Your Blog

At first glance, blogging and earning money from this activity sounds easy because you are thinking all I need to do is to sit in front of a device and type. You can do it from your bed or from your sofa, in the morning, during the day or late at night at your comfort. Yes, it does seem simple and convenient, but it isn’t.

There are a lot of things that go into the making a successful blog. It is hard work and you need to keep at it day in and day out in order for your blog to be successful.

Given below are some pointers on how to make money off a blog.

Create a blog (too obvious?)

If you want to earn money from your blog, you first need to have one. That’s pretty obvious, we know. Yet, the first step for any endeavor is always difficult because you are wracked with self-doubt and low self-confidence.

Not a good position to be in, we know.

But give yourself a push and begin the process at least. It might seem difficult for people, who have no technical knowledge, but believe us when we tell you that it is not so difficult. You just need to visit blog hosting sites and follow their simple instructions for signing up.

Give your blog a catchy name. Select a simple and elegant theme. Set up all the other things that you are directed to do…. And voila! You have a new blog that is now an online resource of your thoughts, opinions and expertise on various subjects.

Let your creative juices flow: Create content that people like

Once you have your blank canvas ready, it needs to be filled with content. The singular advantage of blogging is that there are no limitations on the kind of content you post. It could be about anything under the sun that you are passionate about.

But remember, if you post anything under the sun, you might not make money blogging. When you are thinking, “How to start a blog site and make money”, be honest and very practical about what you choose to blog on.

Your focus should be to create quality content that people would love to read. Think about your target audience. Imagine what they would be searching for online. Try to create content that directly addresses their concerns or is useful to them in some way. You can make them laugh or solve their problems. Your readers should connect to your writing and get hooked onto it. This will help you to monetize your blog better.

Be like a mother: Take care of your readers

As you start blogging regularly, you need to analyze your readers. See what kind of content they like. Engage them through comments on your blog. You can utilize social media to interact with the readers. You can even join forums to keep a tab on the latest trends. This will give you an insight into your target audience’s mind. You can then create content they need.

If your readers keep getting content they find useful, they will keep coming back to your blog. Just like a mother who takes care of her kids, you need to take care of your readers because it is they who will help you earn from your blog.

Start raking in the moolah: Earn money from your blog

Now that you have good content on your blog and have spent a year or so trying to post high quality content on your blog, there is every chance that it has a solid and growing readership. You can now begin to monetize your blog.

We have already talked about the various ways you can earn money from your blog. So, identify what you are comfortable with and give it a shot. Don’t stick to just one method; use two or three methods for earning money from blogging.

You can add affiliate links in your content; sell products like e-books, software like antivirus or services like online tutorials; enlist the services of online advertisement agencies or sell private advertisements on your blog. Just don’t turn off your users by excessive advertising. You need to balance your revenue targets with the loyalty of the readers.

Don’t relent: keep creating quality content

There is no time to take a breather. You need to keep pushing quality content all the time to keep reader trust in your blog. You need to keep them engaged with a variety of fresh content so that they keep coming back for more.

If your readership erodes, so does your income. Make sure that you keep publishing content that acts as a people’s magnet.

Now that you know how to make money from a blog, don’t waste time. Leave your hesitations behind and start making money from your blog.

There are two benefits of having your own blog. One is that you earn money (obviously), but the second, and more important, is that you get personal satisfaction. You are writing about something that you are really passionate about and there is no greater pleasure than that. You are able to put your views forward, your opinions are read and appreciated by people and people care to listen to you. That in itself is immensely empowering.

So, what are you waiting for? Boot up your device and start blogging. Implement everything you have read and stop worrying about how much money you can make from blogging. Just start the process; do it well and money will come.