01 Jul 5 Ways to Make Money Blogging

With at least 500 million blogs online, blogging has turned into more than just a hobby. For many, it’s a livelihood, and can be a profitable one at that. Whether you write for fun or for work, there are many ways to make money from blogging. And even if blogging is a hobby, why not get paid for doing what you love? 

Today, it’s easier than ever to become a professional blogger. While fun and flexible, maintaining a successful blog and earning a steady income from it takes hard work and dedication. However, if you do it right, you can make enough to support yourself and your family. Here are five ways to successfully monetize your blog. 

5 Ways to Make Money from Blogging

1. Create your own blog (duh)

You don’t have to be a professional writer to create your own blog. You just need to invest some time into learning how to make a blog and maintain it. There are tons of great tips available on the internet, including this great guide from Wix that breaks down how to build a blog and suggests some tools you can use to make the process easier. 

Once your new blog is created, the following tips may help you turn it into a money-maker:

A. Devise a blogging strategy. This will outline what topic(s) your blog will cover, its aims, how you plan to promote and monetize it while expanding your audience. Such a plan will keep you motivated to achieve these goals.

B. Write quality content. A successful blog is one with high-quality content that is well-written, well-researched, and contains reliable sources. The higher the quality, the more readers you’ll attract and retain. The more readers you have, the more views and potential income you’ll generate.

C. Start it as a side gig.  Practice makes perfect. It might take some time and experimentation to get your blogging style right. Plus, Google algorithms may change, causing fluctuations in your readership, and consequently, any potential income. Blogging on the side means a less stressful learning process, since your sole income won’t depend on getting your blog right, right away.

2. Display Advertising

An extremely common – and easy – way for you to generate money from blogging is by placing ads on your site. Also known as display advertising, one method entails partnering with a company and agreeing to advertise their specific products or services in banners on your site. Another way is by letting ad networks, like Google AdSense (or other similar programs), choose which ads are relevant to your blog content and will appear in banners on your site. In both partnerships, every time your viewers click on the ads, you get paid for that click.  The two main types of ads are: 

• Cost per click / pay per click ads (CPC/PPC). These are typically banners that you place in your blog’s content or sidebar. Each time a reader clicks on the ad, you get paid.
• CPM Ads, or “cost per 1,000 impressions,” (CPM). These are ads that pay you a fixed amount of money based on how many people view your ad.

This is where quality content matters. The more popular your blog becomes the more companies will approach you about wanting to advertise on your site. And, the more readers you attract, the more ads they may click on, generating decent money for you.

3. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another way to monetize your blog. With this technique, a company provides an affiliate link to incorporate into your blog that lets readers purchase a product you have written about or reviewed. Money is generated each time one of your readers purchases that product via the affiliate link. An estimated 15% of total digital media advertising revenue is attributed to affiliate marketing.

It’s not enough to incorporate affiliate links into your blog. You must also maintain traffic to that page. Similar to display ads, the more readers (i.e., potential buyers) you attract to your blog posts containing affiliate links, the higher the chance of them clicking on the link and purchasing the product, thereby generating income for you. To get the most out of affiliate marketing, consider these additional tips:

• Provide honest reviews. Give honest reviews about any products you’re promoting. Otherwise, you risk losing your hard-earned credibility and readers’ trust. If you don’t like a product or particular aspect of it, say so in your review, or else don’t review the product.
• Use a URL shortcut to shorten your affiliate links so they appear more click-friendly than long ones provided by the affiliate programs.
• Make guides about the product. If you want to encourage more readers to purchase a product that you are affiliated with, create a tutorial about how to use it. People are generally more inclined to buy something after they know how to use it and why they need it.
• Don’t overdo affiliate links. Using too many affiliate links too often will look strange and even suspicious to your readers. Try to use them sparingly and naturally, without forcing the product onto your readers.

4. Market your Own Product(s)

For full control of the income your blog brings in, consider packaging your unique expertise into a sellable product. For instance, if you blog about travel or cooking, you can produce a paid email course, webinar series or an E-book or regular book that you can then market in your blog posts. Whether you put together video travel guides or tutorials on quilting, all are easy to create and integrate into your blog with wix.com. After you’ve established yourself as a credible expert on your topic and have built a large following, your blog readers will be willing to pay for your insights and advice.

5. Sell Memberships

You can earn an income by selling a membership to exclusive features of your blog. For instance, a blog dedicated to freelance writers might charge a monthly fee for members to gain access to its job board. A real estate investment blog might sell memberships to its forum where readers can get access to real estate moguls and investment opportunities. Don’t forget about paid subscriptions to newsletters or webinar series, both of which you can develop on your blog with the wix.com platform. Within these features, you can offer exclusive interviews, tutorials or question and answer sessions about your topic of expertise. Just be sure that paid membership to your blog provides added value not available for free anywhere else. 

Key Takeaways

There are many ways to make money through blogging. You can easily do so by incorporating display advertising or affiliate marketing. Or maybe you prefer developing and marketing your own blog-centric products or services, like paid memberships for exclusive blog content. All methods work, but the bottom line is to feature quality content that provides added value to your readers. It’s also recommended to apply more than one money-making strategy to diversify your income. Blogging can be more than just a creative outlet or teaching tool. It can be a significant source of income – if done and managed the right way.