You can make money blogging, but it’s far from a get-rich-quick-scheme. If you’ve been thinking about trying to monetize your blog, the tips below may help.
Your Visibility
First, do you have an existing blog, or are you thinking about starting a blog from scratch? If you’ve already been blogging for a while and you have an audience, you might be in a great position to start monetizing. If not, keep in mind that you may need to be patient. It can take a year or even several years to build a substantial audience. Don’t give up if you’re two months in and you’re not seeing much action. Read up on ways to drive an audience to your blog. This could include learning about SEO, writing guest posts elsewhere, appearing on podcasts, being active on social media, and ultimately providing great content.
Costs
What’s your budget like? If you are serious about this, you’ll need to spend some money. In fact, top bloggers actually have paid staff. However, long before you reach this point, you will need to think about how you will cover other costs, including domain and hosting costs, advertising and tools. You may want to pay someone to design your site or copyedit your posts. Once you have an idea of what your starting costs will be, you’ll need to figure out where to get the money. You’ll probably need to shell out your own cash at this stage. One option might be a personal loan from a private lender. You can quickly check eligibility online to see what might be available and if you qualify.
Many Income Streams
The key with monetizing your blog is to take advantage of many different income streams. You may think only in terms of advertising but there are many other ways to make money. One popular way is with affiliate marketing, which is when people follow your links and you get a small amount if they make a purchase. If you’re using this approach, it’s best to be up front about it. In fact, if people enjoy your work, they are usually eager to help you out in this way. If you have established yourself as an expert in a subject, you can also write eBooks and sell them from your site. This can be a great way to earn passive income. Online courses are another possibility.
There are a number of platforms and plugins that can help you do this. In some areas of interest, you could even offer coaching services. One thing to think about ahead of time is whether you will accept partnerships in which companies pay you to use their products. If you are a travel blogger, you might receive a paid trip to a resort in order to write about it. If you’re a food blogger, you might get some free equipment or ingredients. There’s no right or wrong answer here, but you may feel pressured to give good reviews, or you may have an audience who would trust your recommendations less if you followed this approach.