I have been writing and blogging in its various formats my entire career, and I’m happy to report it is definitely something you can make money at. That said, you should know that when it comes to blog income – it’s not always easy, and it’s not necessarily quick.
Blogging is more of a long-term investment than a get rich quick scheme. Much like podcasting, you need an engaged audience to monetize. But if you have the time and patience, it might be a great option for you to make some cash on the side.
Create Good Content
The first step to creating a successful blog that can bring you income is to create good content. If you aren’t making good content, chances are you aren’t going to make any money.
Contrary to what you might think, the real money in blogging is in niche blogs that serve a specific audience and have good actionable content. If you aim for the click-bait crowd, you’re going to need a lot of writers and some serious startup cash. So focus on your content. Make sure it is easy to navigate, written in plain language, and likeable and shareable for your audience.
Grow Your Audience
Once you have amazing content on your blog, or more precisely as you are blogging amazing content, your focus should also be growing your audience. To make money at anything you need to have an audience.
Without an audience, there’s no one to sell to, or in the case of advertisers, no one to sell. Your audience will be your source of income. You’ll either sell to them (such as product sales) or sell them as an audience to other companies (as in the case of advertising revenue).
Build Your Engagement
An audience is only really as good as its engagement, so while you absolutely want the numbers you also want the interaction. Blog engagement can come in many forms. It can be seen through the comments, by way of direct emails, sharing content and social media interaction, to name a few.
A truly engaged audience is one that will stick with you and your blog as you grow. They love the content you put out and are avid consumers that share, spread the world and help you grow.
From a marketing perspective, an engaged audience who is more likely to take into account your opinion when making decisions is better than a large audience who sounds like crickets. So when it comes to your growth strategy, focus not only on the growth of your audience numbers but also on a jump in your engagement!
Blog Income Money-Making Strategies
As I mentioned before, blogging is a long-term game. If you happen to land in a fast-growing niche than congratulations things may happen fast for you. But for the rest of us, we’ll have to wait it out a bit. But when the time comes and we are ready to implement some awesome money-making strategies, then here are some of the most popular ones you can look into:
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is when the contents of your blog links through to a product sold at another website (such as Amazon) and when sales are made you get a small percentage of the sale.
Advertising
Advertising is a great way to start making a little income from your blog once you have an audience. Bloggers make an income via advertising by displaying ads from products or services and they pay you for the exposure.
Recurring Income
If your blog has the ability to house premium content or a service or tool, recurring income might be a great idea for you. Recurring income is made through membership payments made on a frequent basis (such as monthly or yearly). Something along the lines of creating a platform for writers to edit each other’s work and charging a monthly membership fee of $5.
Product sales
You don’t have to have traditional retail sales on your blog to make money, but you can still sell things. Bloggers often make money selling eBooks and courses to their audience member to make an income from their blog.
Blogging is not for everyone, but if you have a message you’d like to share or a topic you love to write about then blogging might just be for you!
Do you make money blogging and have some great tips you’d like to share? Tell me about them in the comments below!
Looking for some more money making tips?
- How to Write an Effective Business Plan
- 6 Businesses You Can Start for Almost Nothing
- How To Make More Money as a Landlord
Tae started out as a journalist before following the money into the corporate world. But it turns out that the grass isn’t always greener and now you can find her spending most of her time writing about all the things she loves. Namely, money, travel and business with a hefty dose of self-deprecating humor. She is a podcast fanatic, blogging aficionado and loves to find new ways to turn passions into cold hard cash!
