How do bloggers make money or how do bloggers make their money? And how can you make money by blogging full time?
Perhaps, you have been blogging for some time, and you feel like giving up because you haven’t made a dime as a blogger? It could be because you were coaxed by positive testimonies shared by professional bloggers only to find out that it is not as easy as it seems.
Every week, many people who were once excited newbie bloggers lose heart and drop out. They are just discouraged with poor results despite all the money they put into creating and designing a website, the time wasted writing articles (which may probably not be read due to poor SEO and lack of publicity), and the cost incurred on internet data. Yes, blogging as a process costs money.
How can you make money by blogging? Can you make a living out of blogging?
You want answers to the questions posed above and that’s why you are here. Probably you too have thought of giving up because you felt you have put in so much already, and gained very little in return.
Whether you are someone who wants to go into blogging full time or you have been blogging for some time now and wants to give up, there is a solution. A solution that’s already being used by thousands of bloggers. Some of these methods are how I have made money by blogging.
What if I told you that I have been in your shoes; I know where it pinches. After I started blogging fully in April/May 2020, I soon felt like giving up. I put in a lot of work, but after some months I got nothing for all my work. I almost gave up, thankfully, I found a solution right on time.
If you could earn money blogging like other famous bloggers, what difference would it make?
In this article, I will genuinely share with you six dope ways to make money by blogging including the pros and cons of utilizing such methods.
The truth is that bloggers don’t make money by simply blogging, but you can make money by some kind of ways adopted by these bloggers.
The purpose of a blog
A blog as you know is a dynamic website where you constantly share information. When these information target the needs of a specific people, bloggers can provide some kind of paid service when being contacted. It means the blog has become a medium to sell a service.
Bloggers generally use their blogs to reach out to the right people.
The questions posed at the beginning pop up again: do bloggers make money? How can you make a living through blogging?
Here are some ways you can make money through blogging.
Give good information
One of the reasons to go into blogging is to share your knowledge, discoveries and information to the world. People are constantly looking for information every minute of every day, they are thirsty for information and the first place they usually go to look for such information is on search engines like Google. Many bloggers have leveraged on this opportunity.
As as newbie, if you write good and quality articles that offer value online, people are sure to find you. You have created an avenue for people to find you on the Internet. Many internet users will even decide to email you because you have the solution to their problems. And if you have some kind of presence where someone decides to email you and probably ask some questions, you have created a connection.
Let me explain.
You don’t make money just by sharing information online; but by getting people to interact with you and your blog. When people interact with you, you can then sell them whatever products you have. This, however, is only possible because of the information you have shared.
You can start by defining your reader. Who are they? What information are they looking for? Conduct keywords research and see what your readers are looking for. Write posts you would like to be ranked for. This is the secret to getting traffic.
However, the disadvantage with this method is that it takes time to get recognized. If you are a newbie, don’t expect people to find you immediately. It doesn’t work that way. It takes time and effort. You need to constantly optimize your posts for SEO. Also, you need to be consistent and that’s why you need to build some kind of social media presence like Youtube, Twitter and Instagram. Just take advantage of these platforms.
Become an Ad Publisher
One of the ways a blogger can monetize her blog or make money through blogging is by running ads on her blog/website. Displaying adverts for example on your site is a good way to monetize your content as a blogger. To display Ads on your blog, you need to apply as a publisher. Advertisers use this program to advertise their products or services on several blogs.
But as a publisher, you can only be successful with this method if you write good content that offers value to your visitors using attractive heading/titles. This method works well with the method above.
This is what I mean. Lets say, someone looking for ‘how to eradicate pimples fast’ is directed to your blog from a search engine. When the person lands on your blog, Ads would appear on his/her screen. If the person clicks on the Ads, you would get a percentage.
Ads agencies like Google AdSense use pay per click (PPC). What this means is that if a visitor comes to your blog, reads your content but does not click on the Ads, you will not be compensated. Have it in mind that the commission per click ranges from $0.20-$15.
We have top blogs who are making money with this method. Calories secret which gives health tips and Linda Ikeji Blog which gives general information. If you are from Nigeria, you would be familiar with Linda Ikeji’s Blog.
However, I must tell you that this method should be adopted only if you have a lot of visitors coming to your site monthly. I think you should have at least 500 visitors in your blog every day.
Now, if you have up to 50,000 visitors monthly you could make a lot of money through blogging by earning over $10,000 annually. But, there’s no guarantee or commitment that you’ll earn this amount. This is just an estimate which is affected by a number of things: content category, your region and users interest, even more.
My advise. Do not rely on Google AdSense as a medium to monetize your blog if you have less than this amount of visitors. Think of another method or better still, another advertisement agencies/platforms.
Sign up for an Affiliate Program
Becoming a publisher/affiliate marketer is a good way to make a living through blogging.
Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting or recommended other people’s products and/or services on your blog. This is a cool way to make money through blogging. What you do as an affiliate marketer is promoting someone else’s products through an affiliate network. When you promote or recommend a product, you will earn a commission if people end up buying.
Take note of the adverb I used: “if” which is because nobody will pay you if your readers buy nothing.
Some affiliate programs pay up to $50 as a commission while others pay below that depending on the product you recommending. And although it takes effort, you will make money in the long run. A good affiliate program to start is Amazon. Amazon accepts new blogs as publishers and gives you about 180 days to make your first sale. Bloggers have adopted this medium to make money. However, it would be a bad idea to always write for conversion.
The goal is not to monetize every content but to give useful information. It is best to write informative contents to your loyal fans sometimes.
Freelancing. Do freelancing if you want to monetize your blog
Another way to monetize your blog or make money blogging is to find writing jobs.
A freelance writer is a professional who writes articles on different topics for sites, emails, landing pages, etc. One way a freelancer makes money is through outsourcing and guest blogging. Look for blogs or other publications that are relevant to your niche and write for them. Approach them via email and tell them you want to write for them. Some might want you to pitch, so it is important to be ready.
You can be a ghost writer which actually pays. In fact this was how I made my first $30 dollars as a blogger. However, there is a ‘but’: it isn’t good for your portfolio. So, rather than writing as an unrecognized blogger, why don’t you guest blog. A good way to start is through job boards like Freedom with writing.
This would afford you an avenue to widen your scope and horizon. You would reach more audience who may subscribe to your newsletter for regular updates.
Tutor
You can also make a living from blogging by tutoring people online. Bloggers who wants to make money or make a living through blogging teach online, and teachers who want to reach a wider audience have started a blog. Many people want to learn one thing or the other through the internet. If you could render this service for a fee, you could make so much money blogging full time.
To start, you have to be ready to share your knowledge online, create a mini courses and a paid membership platform where you can tutor people who are interested in learning from you.
Some bloggers like Allison Lindstrom charge people monthly to learn blogging and others like Mariah Coz design Master courses for entrepreneurs.
Think of what you took can do. Why not teach something online, you don’t have to be a pro. However, you have to be knowledgeable in that field.
To be an effective tutor who is constantly being sort after, start by asking yourself some questions. Questions like: what is my unique spelling point? What’s my branding? Who are my audience? What do they want? Why will they want to come to me? How am I different from my competitors? Having these knowledge would make you better prepared.
Tutoring consumes time and resources, so be ready.
Look for advertising opportunities
If your blog has been running for some months/years now and you have sufficient number of viewers each month derived from unpaid social media promotions or organic traffic, you can approach small local businesses and companies and convince them to advertise on your blog. For all we know, their customers or potential buyers might be one of your viewers/visitors. You need to find a way to convince people to advertise on your blog.
This is how to approach them: you can start by saying, ‘I noticed that your business is not being advertised anywhere on the internet, and this is 2020. Do you know that a lot of your competitors have found ways to advertise their products/services and this is why they have a lot of customers?’
It is important that you first make your research on their competitors. Show them as evidence. People like to see something before believing. Then you can say: ‘If you don’t advertise your business only people passing through this street will see what you have, but if you do, more people would patronize your business.’
Female bloggers like Linda Ikeji are making money through blogging by displaying advert banners on their blogs. Linda for instance has tons of viewers per month so she might not have to approach anyone. Instead, businesses will approach her. I believe this is her major source of blogging income.
Conclusion
Making money through blogging comes with you investing time and money. It is a consistent effort. Although it takes time, it can certainly pay off on the long run. Make good use of one or more methods provided in this article, and I would be happy to hear your success story.
If you are a blogger who comes across this article but is already doing one or more of these methods, please share your success story on the comment section. And if I missed any points, please share.
Happy blogging!
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