The idea of making money blogging might sound like something straight out of 2005, but there’s no denying that savvy bloggers today are indeed making a full-time income from their craft.
Even in an era of ad-blockers, it is possible for those who’ve unlocked a buzzworthy niche and having some sort of product or service they can promote alongside their writing.
Beyond writing chops and motivation, what else do you need to do to make your blogging dreams a reality, though? We’ve broken down six steps to help you get started.
Sort Out Your “Paperwork” First
Whether you already have a blog or are starting from scratch, you need to make sure you actually have avenues to create revenue via blogging.
From ensuring that you have appropriate terms and conditions on-site to not getting short-changed by affiliates, there’s quite a bit of setup that goes into a monetized blog from both a legal and technical perspective.
Much like the challenges of a compliance manager, combing through details, metrics and legal loopholes to keep things running smoothly, you need to keep a watchful eye on both the front and back-end of your blog.
Choose the Right Affiliate Offers
Riddling your site with affiliates is bad news for your site and visitors; therefore, you need to pick and choose carefully when it comes to offers. If you’re looking to earn money from your blog, free platforms can limit your options. In addition, if you’re planning on using affiliate marketing, AdSense, or other means of website subscriptions, you’ll need to use a self-hosted blogging platform. A free platform does not allow you to monetize your blog, but many self-hosted platforms do.
Sure, you can feature tons of products via Amazon, but the payout is oftentimes paltry unless you’re selling high-ticket items. As such, try to incorporate offers for software or online tools that produce a better ROI.
For example, there are tons of marketing bloggers out there promoting email marketing tools (like ConvertKit) or even blogging tools (like Grammarly) that would be relevant to their audiences. These types of offers and subscription services are ideal versus one-off product purchases.
Create Your Own Products
Perhaps the best way to get paid through blogging is by promoting your own products so there’s no middle-man involved. Such options which have become the bread and butter of bloggers include…
- Online courses via Udemy which teach your audience an exclusive skill
- Digital products such as webinars or e-books which can be created for next to nothing
- Access to a subscription-based service such as a mastermind group
Nurture Your Community
You can’t expect to create a long-term sales funnel with random organic traffic. Instead, you should strive to create a community with the help of platforms such as Facebook (Groups, specifically) or an email newsletter. Given that both types of communities can be started for absolutely free, either is viable even for those with little to no budget.
Link-Building is a Must
For the sake of time and efficiency, link-building campaigns are crucial to the success of any modern blog. Given how long it takes to drive organic traffic, it pays to take a more proactive approach to outreach and link-building these days.
As long as you have in-depth, link-worthy content (think: long-form, valuable, not fluff) then you likely have link-worthy assets to promote already. By reaching out to fellow bloggers and influencers, you can get your name out there and sow the seeds of a much larger audience over time.
Reinvest Your Earnings Wisely
Once your blog’s success starts to snowball, it’s crucial to keep the momentum going. Reinvesting the earnings from your blog might seem like a gamble, but will ultimately make your life easier and boost the earning potential of your blog. Such investments to consider include…
- Paid tools on-site, such as lead capture forms, CRM software or paid email marketing
- Facebook ads, the high ROI of which are well-documented
- Hiring a virtual assistant or content creator to help you expand via outreach and SEO
Sure, getting started with monetization might seem like an uphill battle, but the initial legwork is totally worth it for those with enough motivation. Rather than sleep on your potential money-making idea, consider how you can put these tips into action ASAP.
