I understand that having a blog, blogging and the term monetize can be intimidating at first, but keep in mind that most other bloggers were once in your shoes.
I first started a travel blog back in 2015 called That Woman From NY. I used affiliate marketing making posts for brands like Expedia and Travelocity and while it was a great experience making a decent side money, I realized that travel wasn’t something I really enjoy writing about.
I’ll share more on why it’s important to choose a topic you are comfortable with and affiliate marketing later in the post.
From that, I evolved the brand into This Woman From NYC in 2016 with the focus on wellness and lifestyle. Holistic and western medicine are something that comes natural to me from my professional experience. It was a no-brainer.
After a couple of years in and excessive hours putting into the blog, I grew tired of getting nowhere with it. I wanted the blog to take off – gain traffic, increase readership and be free from the typical 9 to 5. I was so impatient and unrealistic then.
Hindsight is certainly 20/20 because had I been more strategic and patient, I would have approach it differently.
As you can tell by now, blogging isn’t as simple as it appears on the surface. But!! it is something you can accomplish.
You can make money blogging so that you can live the life you want.
While there is no assurance that you will be able to make a full-time job from blogging, I know many bloggers who do and are very pleased.
With that said, now is the perfect time to launch a blog if you’ve been considering it. Don’t let your anxieties prevent you from moving forward!
How do I think of a name and URL for my blog?
Choosing a name for your blog is arguably one of the most difficult aspects of blogging.
Even if you know exactly what you want your theme to be and have some articles published, picking on a name for your blog may prevent you from really establishing and launching your website.
Coming up with a blog name should not be stressful, so here are some suggestions:
Make it simple. It’s not always easy for people to spell my blog name—especially my last name. Thus, the most important thing I would advise is to make sure that readers can easily type or pronounce your blog name aloud. I’ve come across blog names that are incredibly long, contain hard-to-spell terms, and so on. Make it as simple as you can for your readers to find you instead.
Consider the topic of your writing. Make a list of descriptive words that are connected to each of the themes you want to write about, your target audience, and more. This kind of conceptualizing is useful for coming up with blog names!
Search for related terms using a thesaurus. Using a thesaurus can provide you with some fresh ideas if your first or second options are taken, or if you want to check if there are any blog names that seem more appealing.
Make it memorable. To make your blog name unique and distinctive, you might want to come up with a clever pun, use rhyme, or do something different.
Make use of your name. This is the approach I went with as my topic approach on blogging is multifaceted and holistic in nature. Simply use your name. It’s a very simple method, and an increasing number of people are beginning to use it.
Which subjects should I write about if I want to monetize from my blog? Which blogs are profitable?
People across a wide range of niches are known to generate money from blogging. I know thriving bloggers who cover a wide range of topics, including DIY projects, personal finances, home improvement, travel, homesteading, business, relationships, food, and spirituality. There are many people that I know who write about their lives exclusively and make a full-time living doing it!
How do you choose what to write about? This question has no right or wrong response. I always advise starting a blog about a subject you are interested in, knowledgeable about, enthusiastic about, or something similar. This can help blogging become enjoyable rather than a work.
You can blog on a variety of subjects or just one subject, like wellness. For me, I cover a ton of different topics here. I talk about budgeting, housekeeping, gardening, lifestyle, meditation, self-help, and more. When deciding on a blog topic, you might want to consider the following:
In what field are you an expert? Although you don’t have to be an authority about your blog to make money from it, if you are, this could be a topic for your blog. The reason there are so many popular “How To” websites is that people enjoy reading blogs to learn new things. Even if you’re not aware of it yet, everyone is an expert at something, so there’s surely something you could teach. Consider the kinds of questions that your loved ones and friends frequently ask you, the subjects that you find enjoyable to assist people with, and so on.
What inspires you greatly? It’s generally a good idea to start by considering your areas of passion. Maybe it’s cooking, crafting, traveling, managing finances, playing a sport you truly love, or something else entirely. Whatever it is, writing about your passion through a blog is a terrific idea since it will come through in your writing, and people will appreciate that.
What subjects do you enjoy studying? It’s not necessary to be an authority on a subject to blog about it, as I mentioned previously. Reading blogs from individuals who are experimenting or learning new things is very popular. This is a result of the fact that everyone must start somewhere, and that people enjoy following the process and learning about real-world applications.
That might be the beginning of your blog, for example, if you are studying how to make money blogging. You can write about all your errors, discuss the lessons you’ve learned, demonstrate how you’ve considered and attempted various solutions, and so forth.
Which blogs are your favorites to read? It is likely that you enjoy reading blogs yourself if you are considering beginning your own. If so, you might want to consider writing about the blogs you truly enjoy reading and perhaps thinking about starting your own.
Your blog can be about anything and/or everything if you want to make money from it. It is all up to you.
These are some potential ideas for blog posts. And the list doesn’t stop here. Select one, all, or a portion. All of it is up to you.
- Home
- Family
- Finance
- Fitness and health
- Food
- Lifestyle
- Spirituality
- Crafts
- Small business
- Outdoor pursuits
- Relationships
- School
- Inspiration and advice
- Animals
- Travel
- Electronics
- Games
The appeal of owning a blog is that you can write about anything on it and still make money from it.
However, the one thing I would advise against when you first start your blog is to advise people to consult an expert before making any legal or tax-related decisions. If you give someone incorrect information, you may end up in serious trouble.
How do you come up with new blog article ideas?
One of the most challenging aspects of blogging is coming up with new content, and you may feel as if you’ve struck a roadblock and can’t find any inspiration.
For me, however, I have a strategy that has shown itself to be effective, and as a result, I don’t believe I will ever run out of ideas. So, after many years of writing, how do I still have topics to write about?
I come up with themes to write about by:
Experiences throughout life. In general, I prefer to write on issues with which I am familiar. I also get the most motivation and inspiration from translating wellness and lifestyle ideas that I come across in my daily life into fun and educational writing.
I’ve researched studies and read articles. Every day, I read a lot of articles for enjoyment, and occasionally I come across something that I think should be expounded upon, a topic that I believe the ordinary person doesn’t comprehend, things that boggle my mind, and so on. For example, if I come across a bizarre statistic that interests me, I may make it into an article.
Brainstorming. I will sometimes sit down and have a quick brainstorming session. While I have an extensive list of potential content ideas, I want to keep it fresh and updated on a regular basis. I may read older content of mine and see how I could possibly expand further on a subject to make it better, think of new blog posts that I could write about on a subject that is popular on my site (I may look at Google Analytics to determine this), and more during my brainstorming sessions.
Should I host my own blog?
Of course! If you want to make money from blogging, you should own your own blog. In fact, it’s among the first things you ought to do.
I advise you to begin using WordPress that is self-hosted. This guide will assist you in launching your blog properly. I can’t stress this enough, but I don’t advocate WordPress.com or Blogger. You should use WordPress.org, which is the self-hosted version. Purchasing a $10 web address from GoDaddy does not imply self-hosting either. Self-hosted WordPress is the greatest blogging platform for generating income.
Advertisers, businesses, and readers will still be aware that you are using Blogger or free WordPress unless you choose to self-host, which may seem unprofessional. Additionally, if you are using a free version, your blog can be erased at any time and for no reason—something that really occurred to me. Your chances of making money from your blog may suffer if you are not self-hosted, even though you might initially save some money.
Believe me. Selecting self-hosted WordPress will greatly improve your chances of making money off your blog.
In essence, the benefits of using Bluehost for self-hosted WordPress include:
- Your blog is your own and cannot be taken down for any reason.
- Your blog will be entirely under your control.
- Your blog will appear more professional, which will raise the likelihood that you will profit online.
I spent almost nothing on blogging expenditures when I originally launched That Woman From NY back in 2015. There were perhaps a few years during which I only allocated 1%–2% of my earnings to blogging-related costs.
Now, here are a few of my costs:
- My PC laptop
- Books, manuals, and courses
- The blog itself (including hosting and design)
- My list of emails and email server, Mailchimp subscription
- Technical oversight
- Fees for transactions
To make money blogging, though, you don’t have to spend money on all these things; in my first year, I spent less than $100 in total!
Does my blog need a substantial following to start earning money?
Although you don’t need millions of pageviews every month to make money from your site, increasing pageviews will help you earn more money.
Each blog is unique, and the most profitable blogs aren’t always the ones with the most readers. This is since, regardless of the volume of pageviews you receive, you can often generate a respectable living online provided you know what your readers want, how to approach businesses for partnerships, and how much to charge.
But here are some suggestions to help you get more pageviews:
Post valuable blog entries. Visitors return to sites that have insightful and well-written content. Although more wouldn’t harm, I advise your blog posts to be at least 500 words. Most of my blog entries are between 1,200 and 3,000 words long.
Publish frequently. You should post anything on your blog at least once a week if you want to get paid for it. If you don’t publish on your blog for weeks or months at a time, people may forget about you.
Ensure that sharing your material is simple. It is important to always ensure that viewers can easily share your material. This could entail making your social media symbols easily accessible, entering all the information required for sharing (username, link, and title), among other things. Additionally, you should ensure that the headline is not capitalized when someone clicks on one of your sharing icons. When a blog post sounds like you’re ranting at people, no one wants to share it.
Make compelling headlines. One of the most important things influencing readers’ decisions to click over to your post is the title itself.
Make browsing simple for readers. Making it as simple as possible for people to read your other blog entries is something you should do if you want more pageviews. The homepage of your blog, its categories, tags, search bar, and other features should be simple for readers to locate. Also, I advise you to include links to similar content in every one of your blog entries.
Study SEO. I couldn’t cover SEO (search engine optimization) in such a brief segment, so I advise you to learn more about it and its benefits through research.
Engage on other social media platforms. Social media can help you reach a wider audience and allows you to engage with them more. You might also want to look at Facebook, Tiktok, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, and other platforms in addition to Pinterest.
Be involved on Pinterest. One of my main sources of traffic is Pinterest. I suggest designing exceptional images, making sure your image titles and descriptions are attention-grabbing, pinning frequently, and only pinning lengthy images if you want to boost your traffic on Pinterest. I schedule all my photos using Tailwind and edit them using Canva Pro.
Connect with other online writers. Rather from viewing other bloggers as rivals, you should consider them friends and coworkers. This implies that you might want to attend conferences, communicate with them via email, engage with them on social media, and more. Naturally, be sincere and offer more than you receive.
Post as a guest. In addition to being a terrific method to expand your readership, guest posting fosters relationships with other bloggers.
What kind of networking does a blogger do with other bloggers?
As previously mentioned, networking is crucial!
Bloggers should be willing to network, go to conferences for their industry, share other bloggers’ content with their followers, and do much more.
But I think a lot of bloggers neglect this part, which can hinder your efforts to make money from blogging. It is a bad idea for a blogger to think of other bloggers as competitors, as this is how many bloggers regard them.
By networking, you can learn new skills related to blogging, increase your enjoyment of it, discover ways to monetize it, form valuable relationships, and much more. Networking with other people is a must if you want to earn money blogging like I have! After all, networking is how I discovered how to get paid to write about blogs!
These are my suggestions for developing connections as a blogger:
Keep up with Facebook groups. These days, Facebook groups exist for almost anything. You can join communities devoted to blogging, digital nomads, Pinterest advice, and other related topics. You can make connections with people who share your interests by joining Facebook groups.
Comment on blog posts. Leaving comments on other bloggers’ posts, corresponding with them on social media, answering their newsletter emails, and so forth are all quite simple ways to network with other bloggers. Doing this is quite simple!
Share fellow bloggers’ posts. I frequently share the writings of other bloggers, especially on Facebook and Pinterest. I do this because I want my readers to see all the amazing content that is out there, and you can also help other people by promoting their pieces. Because other bloggers will notice it, this might be a fantastic method to network with other bloggers.
Go to meetups and blog conferences. It’s important to attend networking events in person because that’s usually where you can meet other bloggers and form blogging contacts. For instance, professionals from a wide range of internet businesses can instruct you on how to enhance your blog in a variety of ways.
Networking and forming relationships can be done in a variety of ways. Just remember to approach it like you would an ordinary friendship. Simply leaving a comment on someone’s blog and sharing their posts is a great place to start. After that, you might wish to communicate with them on social media, go to blogging conferences, and so forth. You can establish connections with others who blog about topics you find interesting or with those in your niche or slightly comparable areas.
When it comes to networking, the two primary things I usually encourage people are to be authentic and to give more than you take. It’s not how networking works to email other bloggers and people in the industry demanding that they do anything for you. Rather, you ought to look for opportunities to truly assist others.
Is there a detailed list of steps involved in creating new blog entries?
Sure is! Although it seems like a lengthy method, I’ve found that it’s become more standard for every post I write. Aside from coming up with ideas and crafting the blog post itself, I have always enjoyed creating my own material.
Here’s a rundown of what goes with each new article:
Consider new content ideas. I keep a list of over 50 potential article subjects on my laptop. Life experiences, reader inquiries, research, articles I’ve come across (for example, if I encounter a trend in health that I find interesting, I’ll convert it into a long post), and so on inspire the things you read about here.
Establish a schedule. I have a topic schedule for at least 30 days, including the days articles will be published. In addition, I try to cover a wide range of topics each week. For example, I don’t normally like to devote an entire week on wellness subjects. Instead, I try to mix up my blogs with topics like money saving, mindful life enhancement, gardening advice, and so on.
Write material. I like to sit quietly and write an article from start to finish, taking very minimal breaks. It could take me an hour or all day to create an article. Sometimes content is spread out over several days, but I like to finish a piece of content in one session. I usually take a day off from writing to return to the article and make editing adjustments. I review the article for grammar, punctuation, and overall flow. This provides me with a different perspective on what I documented.
Insert images and formatting. After I’ve made the necessary changes, I add photos (one for the blog post and one for Pinterest), format the post, and include links to similar content on my website.
Publish and share the article. I share the article on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter once it is published. I also schedule it for future dates on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Send an email to my list of subscribers. For the time being, I choose to email my subscribers every two weeks and share all the posts as a review.
Where does the money for blogging come from?
Many of you are interested in blogging but are unsure where the money will come from.
You get blogging earnings from whoever pays you.
- If you put display advertisements on your website, such as Google Adsense, you will be compensated by Google or another company.
- If you offer affiliate marketing, the company that makes the product or service will pay you anytime someone buys or joins up for something through your link.
- If you are paid to display an advertisement on your website, you are paid by the company you are promoting for.
- If you publish a sponsored article, you will be compensated by the company that sponsored the post.
There are numerous companies and blogging networks where you can make money blogging, and they usually pay you by PayPal or by mail.
How much time does it take to monetize blogging?
This question has not one answer. After only a few months of blogging, I knew some bloggers who were earning thousands of dollars every month. There are bloggers who started a year or two after me and are now earning hundreds of thousands of dollars every month. There are also bloggers who do not make any money at all.
Blogging is not a get-rich-quick program, and there is no set time frame for when you will start earning money from blogging. However, if you are passionate about it, you never know what will happen.
It all relies on you, your blog’s effort, employing different strategies, whether you have the time to learn how to monetize your blog, and other factors.
How can I start to monetize from my blog?
There are a variety of ways to make money blogging, including: Affiliate marketing, product sales, blog sponsorships and display advertising. I’ll go over each of these in depth below!
1. Affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is a strategy of monetization in which you add a link to a product or company on your website or social media platform. You earn money when a follower purchases a product after clicking on your link (this is known as an affiliate link). Affiliate marketing is a terrific method to make money online because if you like a product or brand, all you must do is review it and perhaps others will be interested in purchasing it as well.
My absolute favorite way to make money blogging is through affiliate marketing. You might potentially earn money for years to come with just one blog or social media post. You must now maintain the post and continue to drive traffic to it. Furthermore, most successful affiliate marketers will include their affiliate links in more than one post.
Affiliate marketing allows me to unwind and enjoy life more while earning a good living by promoting things that I use and appreciate.
Affiliate marketing can be done with a variety of companies, including Amazon and Rakuten. Because there are millions of goods to discuss with your audience in your blog material, successful bloggers choose to employ a variety of companies for affiliate marketing.
Most of the work has been completed, and the traffic created to an email list and blog postings passively converts people into buyers with minimal effort on my part.
If you want to understand how to make money blogging with affiliate marketing, keep reading!
I occasionally use Bitly to shorten long affiliate links. This is what I use for some of my affiliate links because it looks far nicer than the long URLs that most affiliate networks provide.
Don’t go too far. It is not necessary to incorporate an affiliate link 500 times in a blog post. Readers will notice if you include them in the beginning, middle, and end.
Provide genuine feedback. Always be truthful in your reviews. If there is something you don’t like about a product, either don’t review it or disclose the flaws in your review. Either be truthful or avoid working with businesses whose products you dislike.
Establish an excellent working relationship with your affiliate manager. Your affiliate manager can provide great deals, affiliate raises, and other benefits to your readers. These items can help you make money blogging.
Create a page with recommendations. I enjoy perusing a blog’s recommendations page since it informs me about new items and services. Your recommendations page is a terrific place for the blogger to post affiliate links and relevant resources that visitors may need or want.
Make tutorials available. Readers are interested in learning how to use a product. Showing them how to use it, how it can help them, and so on are all very beneficial.
2. Product sales.
To truly manage how you earn money blogging, you’ll need to design a product to offer to your audience. You can build and sell a variety of digital products on your website, such as an ebook, course, consulting services, and so on. You can also make a physical product such as a book, t-shirts, mugs, totes, etc.
3. Blog sponsorships or sponsored posts.
Having a business advertise on your blog is one of the first ways for the ordinary blogger to start earning money from blogging. In fact, sponsored pieces are how I got my first blog started!
This type of blogging income comes from collaborating with a company and promoting their brand on your blog or social media profiles.
You may begin with sponsored articles right now, whether you are a new blogger or have been writing for years. Even if you are just starting off with your blog, you may be able to establish a profitable sponsored partnership.
Because of the amount of attention and customers that a sponsored post can bring to a brand, many brands are shifting toward working with bloggers and social media influencers. With sponsored posts, brands may reach their target audience and get legitimate customers. This is why marketing and sponsorships are shifting toward bloggers and Instagrammers.
Brands have just recently begun to recognize the value of blogs and social media profiles, and the results have been spectacular. Prior to collaborating with bloggers and internet influencers, brands frequently relied on celebrities to market their products. People are more likely to be affected by their favorite online influencers’ blogs, Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram accounts today. The reason for this is that actual people who have successfully amassed a devoted fan base through genuine and distinctive voices are the ones who are considered internet influencers.
There is a lot of opportunity for new bloggers to break into the sponsored post industry, and there is still plenty of possibility for growth in the future. Because companies and advertisers are only now realizing the significance of online influencers like bloggers, the blogging sector will continue to grow and offer more options for sponsored collaborations.
And there is statistics to back up the continuous success and development of influencer marketing. A research study published the following:
- Influencer marketing was effective for 94% of marketers that used it
- According to 71% of marketers, continuous ambassadorships (such as sponsored collaborations) are the most effective kind of influencer marketing
- 48% of businesses in the United States intend to increase their online influencer campaign expenses in the future
This only demonstrates that sponsored relationships are here to stay, and your capacity to generate money blogging with sponsored pieces will undoubtedly increase in the future.
As the online world grows, so will the opportunity to make money blogging. There are numerous types of bloggers, and we all make money in slightly different ways. With a wide range of tales and specializations, the possibilities for sponsored partnerships are limitless!
4. Display advertising.
Display advertising is another common technique to monetize a blog and is typically the quickest way to make money blogging.
Display advertising is a passive kind of blog income because all you must do is install advertisements (often via an advertising network) on your blog’s sidebar, below a blog article, or elsewhere. Your display advertising income will increase or decrease depending on your page views, and there is no further direct labor to be done once the advertisement is up.
Google Adsense, Media.net, MediaVine, and Raptive are some popular ad networks to learn how to make money blogging with display advertising.
Beginner bloggers can earn money in any of the previously mentioned ways. Display advertising is usually the simplest method because all you have to do is insert banners or other ads within a blog post or on a page.
However, you are unlikely to generate a lot of money with display advertising at first because it requires a lot of page views to be profitable.
Please bear in mind, blogging revenue is comparable to any other sort of full-time or side income. Therefore, you will have to pay taxes on your blogging earnings.
What is the purpose of an email list for my blog?
When it comes to making money blogging, not having an email list is a significant error. I didn’t start my email list until years after I started blogging, which was perhaps my leading blogging error. I had no idea how an email list could help me communicate with my fans and make money blogging.
I wish I had spent more time on my newsletter during those early years, but I’m glad I learned from my oversight.
This is why I advise all bloggers to spend time building their email list. In fact, everybody who wants to make money online should build an email list.
Here are some of the reasons why blogs should have an email list:
Your email subscribers are dedicated supporters. If you can show up in someone’s email inbox whenever you want, they probably trust what you have to say and like hearing from you. This is a fantastic approach to build an audience, especially a loyal one.
You have complete control over your newsletter. Unlike Pinterest and Facebook (and other social media sites), your newsletter and email subscribers are all yours, and you have complete control over your readers’ attention. You don’t have to worry about some social media algorithm not showing your content to your readers because they are email subscribers, and you aren’t competing with anyone else to get them to see it.
Email is an excellent medium for delivering various types of content. For instance, I can also use Convertkit to develop free email courses that are automatically distributed to my subscribers. This simplifies things because all a reader has to do is sign up, and then Convertkit drips out the content on a daily, weekly, or whatever schedule I specify.
You have the money on your list. I believe that an email/newsletter is the finest approach to promote products, both affiliate and your own. Your email subscribers expressly signed up to hear what YOU have to say, therefore you have their attention. Over and above any other technique, your email list will almost always result in more purchases.
To Wrap Things Up
Figuring out how to make money Blogging is hard work, and like any other job, not everyone wants what you want.
And, for every great blog, there are likely hundreds of bloggers who will never earn a living from their blogs. While blogging can earn you money, not all bloggers will.
It’s like claiming that every single one of the individuals who start a business will succeed. That will never happen because firms fail, business owners change their minds, and some simply do not enjoy it.
When you realize that blogging is difficult, you will be 99% ahead of the competition. Don’t believe, as most people do, that blogging is simple or a get-rich-quick con.
Starting a blog can be challenging. However, all bloggers begin at the same place.
When I first started my blog, I was completely lost. I had to learn everything the hard way, which was challenging at times.
However, I have always enjoyed writing and blogging. I believe that is extremely crucial when it comes to this type of company – you must be passionate about your blog and/or passionate about what your blog allows you to accomplish in your spare time like spending more time with your family and/or traveling the world!
What other concerns do you have about making money blogging?
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