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If you have ever thought about how to make money blogging, then written it off as too hard or too time-consuming, the great news is there are some simple ways to monetise your blog, including one you can set up in minutes!
However, a word of warning.
Blogging does take time and work. You need to build up a bank of content, earn trust, and distribute your content so people can find it.
You also need to make sure you’re creating quality content that helps people solve their problem. When you can help or entertain people, they are more likely to share your content as you have moved them and made them feel something.
Let’s take a look at five ways to make money blogging…
How To Make Money Blogging
Advertising using Google AdSense
The simplest way to start making money from blogging is to install AdSense ads on your blog.
To do this, all you need to do is go to the AdSense sign up page, enter your website URL, enter your email address, answer some simple questions, accept the Terms & Conditions, and you’re away.
Google will then review your site, and once approved, will start displaying ads to your readers.
In the begging, you may choose to use their ‘Auto Ads’ option which can be a little ugly, as Google will just slap ads anywhere they see fit which may not make the best user experience for your readers.
As you learn more you can then choose to position the ads yourself, and even use a plugin such as Advanced Ads to customise the type of ads shown, the size, and where they fit into your content.
Google pay you when people click on ads, so in the early days you won’t make a fortune, but as your audience grows and you get more traffic, it becomes a nice little passive income on the content you have already created.
Then as your audience continues to grow, you can look at options such as selling ad spots (using Advanced Ads to set it up) and selling sponsored reviews for brands that you use and trust.
Promote Affiliate Products
By using a strategy known as ‘affiliate marketing’ you can make money blogging by promoting affiliate products.
The key to succeeding with affiliate marketing is to make sure the products or services you’re writing about are relevant to your niche and audience.
For example, if you blog about parenting, your affiliate posts should be about things parents need to buy and are searching for information. Think baby bags, bottles, cribs, and so on.
However, if you’re blogging on parenting and try to promote affiliate links for digital marketing software, you will alienate your audience quickly, and lose trust.
While affiliate marketing forms a great 1-2 punch when combined with AdSense, you need to make sure you disclose that your post contains affiliate links to stay on the right side of the law (especially in the US).
Market Your Own Services
If you’re someone who offers their own service, you can promote these through your content.
Business consultant? Share a blog that explains the steps you took to help a client achieve x result, then link to your services page.
Hairdresser? Write a post on summer hairstyles with photos of your client’s hair transformation, and link to your booking and/or pricing page.
Property expert? Think outside the box and rather than simply talking about buying or selling property, give people some DIY tips they can implement themselves to add value to their property and link to your contact page so they can reach out when it’s time to sell.
Create A ‘Resources’ Page
When you have been working to build trust through your content, people will naturally want to use the tools and resources you use so they can replicate your success.
By having a ‘Tools We Use’ or ‘Resources’ page, you can add affiliate links to all the services you’re using.
You can double down on this by also adding links to reviews you have written about the products, which builds your internal link profile (a good thing) and increase opportunities for people to click your affiliate links.
This page should only ever include tools and resources you use personally.
Create A ‘Work With Me’ Page
If you offer a service such as coaching, consulting, or ‘done for you’ work, you should add a page on your site that explains what you do, who you do it for, and why people would benefit from working with you.
Then in your content, at relevant and non-salesy moments you can link to your ‘work with me’ page so people can buy your services or book in a consultation with you.
This page is also a great place to display examples of your work, case studies, and testimonials.
If you or your business has won an award, been featured in the media, or you have been a guest on a podcast, include the details on this page as well, as it helps to promote you as an authority in your niche.
Offer An Online Course
It’s true that nearly everyone in business is offering an online course these days, so I’ll say this bit slowly as it’s vitally important…
If you’re going to sell an online course, it has to be valuable!
So many people create courses with high-level information that can easily be found with a quick Google or YouTube search because they want to make a quick buck.
It may work in the short term, but in the long term you burn your bridges with your audience, as they end up disappointed they wasted their money. You then enter the world of negative reviews damaging your brand, when in reality, if your course helps people it should be easy to ask for positive reviews – and get them.
My favourite example of online courses being valuable is Ramit Sethi and his ‘I Will Teach You To Be Rich’ trainings.
Lame name, but the quality is amazing.
Why?
Ramit gives away 90% of his content for free. And if you follow it, you can have success.
So when he advertises a new course, you instinctively know it is going to bring you massive value.
If you’re going to make an online course, don’t be a charlatan in it for a quick cash injection, be like Ramit.
How To Make Money Blogging – The Conclusion
The above strategies can help you to make money blogging, and I’ve listed them in descending order of difficulty.
None of the strategies I’ve mentioned are designed to give you overnight success, but if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly. This means putting in the work upfront to reap the rewards down the track.
Think of blogging like farming. First you sow, then you reap. Then you sow again, then you reap again.
If you would like a hand making sure your land is fertile and your content is engaging, reach out and let’s have a chat.
