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Are you still orientating to start a blog? Or do you like reading income reports from other blogger’s? Maybe you wanna know what the secret to earning money blogging is diversifying your income. Did you already Google for “how to make money blogging for beginners”?
Yeah, I’ve been there too.. 15 years ago. I’ve been a fulltime blogger for ages now and there are multiple ways to earn money blogging and the sky’s the limit, but I recommend you check out the following ways.
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I’m not a big fan of the ways that promise you the gold now, because they often feel (and are) scammy. We’re in it for the long-run, and treat our blogs like businesses, so keep that in mind when doing your own research. I talk about more important blogging steps in the Ultimate Guide To Blogging. Like ways you can prepare your blog for income and more!
I noticed that often the strategies that take longer are more profitable after a few months or years and should not rely on other platforms (more on that later with an example).
Also, what might work for another blogger doesn’t work for you or your niche, and that’s ok. Just know that each of the strategies discussed, ARE working for a lot of bloggers, so that should give you the motivation not to give up as soon as you don’t see results now.
Are you putting a lot of effort into your blog but aren’t you near making any money with it? It might not only be a visitor problem.
Many bloggers think that it’s important to have a massive following when it comes to being a blogger that gets paid but that’s not it.
I know from experience that things like conversion rate can increase if you’re keeping your target audience in mind.
When I first started out monetizing my blog I didn’t get a lot of traffic and I didn’t know how to properly monetize. But I promoted a product, that I was an affiliate for, and I was late with starting the promo, had no plan and basically just put the link out there. But I made ONE sale within 3 days and that one sale generated over $1500 dollars. I was hooked.
That’s even more than what some people earn with their 40 hour work weeks in a month, so when this happened, I knew I was on the right path, and after many trial and errors I have strategies that work.
Of course, if no one seems to notice your blog, it’s disappointing, but it’s worse when you make these 6 mistakes too (and let me tell you, I have made all first 5 mistakes over the years!)
Many of the strategies you find online, focus on building a following first and then making money. Or focus on making money from blog sponsors and Ads, but that’s almost impossible when you have a small following.
I know because I’ve been blogging fulltime the past 4 years, and I have been blogging for more than 12 years!
Before we get into the best ways of making money blogging with a small audience, let’s get into the different ways most bloggers earn money:
Now each of these categories offers a wide range of different possibilities as well, it’s time for a breakdown, the pros and cons and my experience.
I’ll also hand you the starting point and websites to sign-up to get started.
Let me just start with saying that this is the easiest way, you just sign-up for an ad network like Google Ads, insert the widget on your blog and get along with your day while getting paid. Right? Nope, that’s not how it works and I don’t think new bloggers should start with display ads as their first way of monetizing their blog.
I mean, how often do YOU click on an ad when you see one? And I mean not accidental.
Now, how often are YOU annoyed by ads? I know I am.
Still, I did add a couple of banner ads to my blog once I got my first viral post. Why? Because it meant I could earn an extra $100 – $2000 a month from just adding the display ad to my site.
Now before we dive into the strategies on getting started with this, here are some pros and cons:
Pros:
Cons:
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing comes down to promoting products online to get a commission whenever a sale is made through your recommendation link.
Many bloggers have implemented this strategy already and I cannot wait to show you how to turn your blog into a money-making machine with affiliate marketing!
So before we get into the actionable steps, make sure you read the pros and cons of promoting affiliate links on your blog and social media:
Pros:
Cons:
Also read, what to look for in an awesome affiliate program
If you have some skills, make sure you offer them as a service on your blog. There are always brands, e-commerce stores and people looking for someone who can help with (and knows a lot about) blogging, tech things, social media etc.
Many bloggers offer services and even when you don’t have time right now, it’s smart to put up a page that lists your services. You never know…
I’m not a big fan of bloggers offering ‘blog coaching’ when they’ve just been blogging for a few months, it’s like ‘teaching people how to become a millionaire’ while the teaching is secretly your way to become one. It just feels like, you’re making money while doing something that you’re not a practitioner of. I’m a big fan of being a practitioner, but I think it’s better to offer something that you learned either by doing (it for many years) or that you studied for. But it’s up to you. Stick in your lane, if you write about food, offer services that are food related to ‘I’ll create a 8-course menu for your dinner + include a complete grocery store list’. That makes more sense for your readers that if you’re a food blogger that offers ‘services to work around the house and redo your bathroom’.
Like all the other ways of earning money blogging, there are a few pros and cons:
Pros:
Cons:
Do you give people something to buy? It makes sense if you only have 1 ebook somewhere hidden on just one blog page that you’re not making any money.
Or even worse, how are you planning on generating some income if you’re not selling anything? You’ve got skills. Use them!
Check out the free platform to sell your product on for free here!
So one of the realizations, when I went from hobby blogger to professional blogger, was… If you want to make money you have to constantly offer something.
I know, it seems like an open door but in everyday busy life, I kind of forgot to offer a lot of products. I’ve been writing ‘free articles’ for more than over 12 years on my blogs, and it was about time I offer my blog readers something more.
Of course, back in the day a lot of clients found me via my blogs, but now there’s so much blogger competition, that’s not as likely to happen as before. So even in addition to selling your freelance services, you should create a product. Because you only have to do the work once, but profit over and over again from it.
And working with people 1 on 1 is fun, but it’s not very visible to other people what’s I’m actually doing for that cash money. I could have been a stripper haha nobody would know! So it’s time to put on some presale pages and show the world that I am actually a knowledge bomb-business woman freelancing professionally as a writer and photographer since I was 16 🙂
So before we get into the actionable steps, make sure you read the pros and cons of creating and selling your own products:
Pros:
Cons:
When balanced, this option to make money blogging is one of my favorite forms. However, when I overdo it, I no longer feel authentic and I feel like an advertisement board.
I’m doing about one collaboration a month, sometimes a few more if they fit into my schedule authentically.
A sponsored post doesn’t mean you have to write it like you work for the company or that you’re writing a review. It means that it blends in to your content naturally, however, you always have to tell your audience that you’re getting paid for something.
I love sponsored posts, because I like the challenge. I also like to get paid for my creative work, which is exactly what featuring an item in your content means.
So hurray for sponsored posts and brand collaborations!
Here is an Instagram example of a sponsored (instagram) post I did for Lipton:
See, you don’t always need to make a sponsored post super ‘sponsored’. I did a road trip, took a photo of the sight and included the brand naturally, I was actually drinking that after a hike. I tagged the brand in the photo and used hashtags, that’s it!
Sounds good? Let’s get to the pros and cons:
Pros
Cons
Working with brands on sponsored posts on your social media
I think this is a different way to monetize as a blogger, because often blog sponsored posts are a lot of work, while social media posts sometimes just mean ‘retweet’ a tweet or visit an event and create an Instagram Story.
Working with brands is my favorite way to earn money doing what I love when I just started out monetizing my blog.
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