Wouldn’t it be nice to stay at home every day to avoid the 9-5 grind and still be able to make a full-time income? For many people, the world of blogging has provided them with that opportunity. There are plenty of stories on the internet today of people who have made millions of dollars with their blog, but let’s set a realistic goal. How would $50,000 per year sound? That’s big money for a lot of folks.
Here’s how you can make that much cash just from blogging. Keep in mind that for 99.9% of bloggers, this isn’t going to happen overnight. You won’t be able to quit your job tomorrow because you’re making tons of cash. You will, however, be able to take the first steps toward a meaningful salary when you know how to make money from blogging.
1. Sell Advertising Space
This is the #1 moneymaker for most blogs. Selling advertising space on your blog is a lot like selling it for any other media source. You’ve got to have traffic in place before companies are going to be interested in sponsoring your content. That means the first thing you need to do is begin to create informative, valuable content about a subject that you love. Then keep creating more content until you can build up a solid readership foundation.
That doesn’t mean you have to just blog for free until you get hundreds or thousands of hits every day. You can begin using the extra space in your blog for advertising campaigns through programs like Google AdWords, Clicksor, and others of a similar structure. Just paste the advertising code into your blog template or post and the ads will automatically populate for each user. You’ll get paid for impressions, clicks, and sometimes sales.
2. Write Product Reviews
Once your blog gets up and running, a great way to earn some good cash is to write product reviews for specific items. Companies sponsor writers to review new items that are going to hit the market. Readers see the review, think about wanting the item, and that’s effective advertising for that company. Blogs that are above 100,000 hits per month can usually bring in $250-$500 per sponsored review that gets posted. That’s money that can add up fast!
The trick to writing a good product review is to just be yourself. Be authentic and tell the pros and cons of the item. Don’t make the review negative, of course, but do make sure your readers know that you took an honest look at the item. If they think you took some corporate cash and regurgitated something a PR department gave you, there won’t be many additional opportunities in the future for cash.
Begin building relationships right away by sending original sample reviews to organizations within your blog’s niche. You might just find a partner that can help you work at home.
3. Become an Affiliate
Affiliate marketing has exploded thanks to companies like Amazon who let people sell virtually anything from their blog and get a commission for it. There area three primary rules when becoming an affiliate that should be followed every single time.
1. The product or service you represent should be something that you’d use.
2. It needs to be something that hasn’t saturated the market.
3. There must be some association between the affiliate product and your blog niche.
If you are writing a blog about how much you love dogs and your affiliate links take people to a product page that sells flea collars for cats, then it will be difficult to make money. Keep everything consistent, don’t oversaturate your blog with links, and you’ll be able to build up results over time.
Here’s something that many affiliates aren’t doing right now: go local. Almost all affiliates represent national or international brands with their blogs. Speak with local business owners about creating an affiliate program through your blog. Setup coding, discounts, or other specific items that will let businesses know that you referred the customer and get paid a percentage from the sale you created.
4. Write For Others Instead
Knowing how to make money blogging means knowing when to hold your writing skills for yourself and knowing when to fold a blog that isn’t producing. If you have great writing talents, but can’t seem to get a blog of your own to get off the ground, then market your talent instead of your blog as a way to make money.
If there’s one thing that blogs always need, it is fresh, original content. Many blogs are paying good writers for content every single day. You can get paid per article, per word, or be placed on salary depending on the arrangement that you negotiate with each one. Although this generally means you won’t get any credit for the work you’re doing, you’ll be getting paid to do something you love.
5. Blog For Someone
More than 60% of the average marketing budget today for Fortune 500 companies is going towards the creation of original content. Blogs are a major part of that original content because it provides a business with four specific advantages that help to bring more leads into their sales funnel.
It proves expertise. 90% of leads for the average business today are researching products and services before they contact the business. Content that proves expertise naturally enhances sales opportunities.
It tests concepts. Instead of putting prototypes in the hands of customer segments, blogging content can help to test a concept with its readership so companies can decide whether to proceed with an idea.
It creates rankings. Expertise creates value. Value increases the search positioning of a company online. Higher search rankings result in more clicks. More clicks mean more sales.
It allows large companies to connect with individual customers. Relationships are just as important today for businesses as they have always been, but people are online more than they are in the lobby of a corporation. Blogging helps to connect individuals to companies, building relationships and brand loyalty in the process.
Some companies are hiring full-time bloggers to help obtain these advantages. Others are using independent contractors. If you don’t want to fully shed the corporate world and be 100% self-employed, then this is the way to make money from blogging that will likely make the most sense for you.
6. Sell Your Blog
There are nearly 200 million blogs that are on the internet right now. This one fact alone means it is nearly impossible for someone to become an overnight millionaire. Finding the one blog in 200 million blogs that is yours, wanting to read it every day, and then wanting to spend money on it is worse than trying to find a needle in a haystack.
It’s like trying to find a needle in an entire field of haystacks.
Yet the right concept at the right time with the right talent can pay off big. If you get the opportunity to sell a blog to a company because you’ve built up a strong readership, then take it. Negotiate a fair price for it, of course, because the first offer is almost always too low, but do take the offer. You can always create a new blog and start again. Getting a year’s worth of cash for the rights to your blog? That’s an opportunity that doesn’t come along for every blogger.
Sometimes you can sell your blog to other bloggers to give them a jumpstart on their own career. Higher levels of unique traffic and quality content will help to build up the value of your domain. A blog with several hundred posts of high quality in a niche field can often sell for $1,000 to $2,000. Some go for five or six figures if there is 3-5 years of development behind the domain.
7. Keep At It
No matter which money making opportunity you decide to take, it is important that you keep working at your blog every day in some way. That doesn’t mean you have to be writing every day, but you should be scheduling content on a regular basis. If you don’t want to work Saturday or Sunday and you post every day, then write three posts on Friday. Don’t give up.
The instant you give up on a blog is the moment that you lose the chance to make some cash. There are millions of dead blogs on the internet today, but that doesn’t mean your new blog has to be one of them. Commit to the process, create a solid plan of action, and then stick to it. That will give you the best chance of earning full-time money.
There is a chance that you could be the world’s next multimillion dollar blogger. For many people, however, the chance to earn a full-time salary from blogging is the right amount of success. Follow these options, put in the sweat equity, and you’ll give yourself the best possible chance for success.
