Blogging can be a very lucrative way of making money, a great hobby and a fantastic way of expressing your passion on several subjects you enjoy. Maybe you’ve thought about doing it for a while but you aren’t sure if it’s your calling. However, one thing is for certain and that is: this article will show you how to make money blogging like a pro!
But wait, a little housekeeping is necessary and you may already know this.
The first thing you need to understand is that this isn’t a get rich quick scheme or that sort of thing. Just like most things worth doing, owning a blog requires dedication, determination, passion, perseverance, and hard work. You’ll also need to invest in yourself and your blog to truly make an impact.
Luckily, investments are low when you’re just starting out. As you attract more readers to your website, you may need further investments in areas such as web hosting, premium plugins for blog platforms like WordPress, ghostwriters, etc. If you don’t already have a blog, then you can learn about starting a blog for free here.
12 Ways to Make Money Blogging
Over the years, many fulltime bloggers have shared their own story and knowledge gained from experience. They’ve tested and used many of the strategies that we’re about to discuss. They work! In fact, the only thing that’ll stop you from making money with your blog is not trying hard enough.
1. Offer Services On Your Blog
This is a strategy that I’ve seen many SaaS (software as service companies), copywriters/writers and knowledge intensive service industries use to attract new customers. What better way to introduce your service to a potential client?
A prospect that reads one or two of your blog posts before reaching out to you for service is far more likely to buy than someone who didn’t. However, make sure you’re selling services that are directly related to the topics covered on your blog.
Here’re some examples.
Tech Help Canada blogs about marketing and entrepreneurship a lot, so we offer services like SEO, web design, ghostwriting, web copy creation, etc. A blog that’s dedicated to sales can offer services such as outreach, cold calling or prospect information gathering. Similarly, a social media marketing expert can offer consulting services to small business owners.
2. Offer Sponsored Posts
Businesses will pay you to publish their content on your blog. This is because they can reach their target audience in a non-threatening way. It’s something you can start offering from the get-go, even if you don’t have a lot of website traffic and here’s why.
Some organizations are shifting focus from solely focusing on current audience traffic to future potential. So if your blog shows promise, smart business executives will rather get your service for cheap early on before prices increase.
Also, as you publish more useful and relevant content on a regular basis, your blog traffic will steadily increase. At the point when web traffic surges, it should already be well known that you offer sponsored post.
There are two things you must do to avoid any legal problems and be inline with search engine guidelines. These are:
- Clearly let readers know that the publication is a sponsored post and name the company.
- Use rel=”nofollow” on the link that points back to the sponsor’s site.
3. Develop An Online Course
If you’re already providing valuable knowledge on your blog, then offering an online course is likely something your readers will pay for. Creating a course requires time and concentration to ensure that your students get the best experience possible.
You can host your course with companies like Udemy or Skillshare. If you have a WordPress blog, you can simply use a plugin to host it on your own platform. Depending on your setup, you’ll either need a self-hosted or hosted WordPress plugin.
Similar to online courses, you can offer to coach or even add one-on-one coaching as an added value to registered students.
4. Write And Sell eBooks
If you’ve already built up an audience, you can create exclusive eBooks and sell them. You can even reuse some of the publications on your blog to develop one.
While it’s encouraged that you repurpose existing content, make sure you’re refreshing them with additional information. Otherwise, you risk upsetting your readers if they’re reading the exact same pieces of info with no added value.
The best way to sell your eBook is exclusively on your blog and email list. Once you’ve written your super awesome book, you can use the following steps to launch.
- Design/create a landing page for your eBook.
- Integrate a way to collect payments for your product.
- If you’ve got an email list, send them the offer.
- Promote your book’s landing page on other places like YouTube or Facebook. Preferably, by using free methods because consumers don’t often buy books from authors they’ve never heard of or connected with.
5. Offer Premium Content
Similar to selling eBooks, gated premium content can be a smart move for some blogs. Think of it as a members only area where exclusive content is only available to subscribers. If you’re using WordPress, there are several plugins available that can help you easily set up a paywall in minutes.
But how do you know if a paywall would work for your blog?
The best way to find out is to look at your email subscribers and website visitors. If you notice that a lot of people who own similar businesses to yours are subscribing or visiting your blog frequently, then you should totally add a members only area.
Also, if you have plenty of returning website visitors and none or too little are buying from you, then add a paywall.
The only caveat is that if you add a paywall to content that search engines already have in their index, you risk losing some web traffic. So it’s often a better idea to restrict paywall to newly published content.
6. Sell Physical Products
You can use your blog to sell items. Decide on the products that you want to carry and include a ‘shop now’ or ‘web store’ button. Make sure your call-to-action (CTA) is visible and noticeable. Many eCommerce stores use their blogs to attract consumers every day!
7. Add a Job Board
It’s always a good idea to find ways of making your blog/website more useful. Depending on the subjects you cover, you can add a local, national or international job board to your site. For instance, an educational accounting blog could do this for its audience.
8. Add a Business Directory
Through research, you can identify the products and services that are most suitable or needed for your audience type. Then you can develop a niche specific web directory and contact businesses to join. Additionally, if you serve business owners on your blog in general, you can simply create one that they’ll want to join. The Canadian Web Directory is a fine example.
Since your web directory is super targeted, you’ll be able to charge a premium price for a listing. The free Business Directory WordPress plugin can help you set up your website directory and collect payments for listings quickly.
9. Sell Advertising
If you have a lot of web traffic or a good enough niche audience, you can sell ads on your blog directly or join programs like Google AdSense, BuySellAds and Adclerks. But don’t limit yourself. Get creative with how you sell ads! You can rent out space within specific articles, offer to create and publish videos on your site or even podcasts.
10. Review Products For a Fee
Companies are often more than happy to give you money for a review of their products. However, make sure you’re not being unethical by guaranteeing positive reviews because it’s bad for your readers. How are they going to trust you if you’re not being honest with them?
Ensure your clients understand that a favorable review is not guaranteed. Usually, they’ll offer you a free trial of their product. So give them the option to opt out if you know that you didn’t enjoy it!
11. Affiliate Marketing
When you market affiliate products, you earn a commission for every successful sale. A good example is when you refer a friend to business and get a gift in return. It’s a lucrative model and there’re thousands of businesses that thrive with affiliate marketing alone!
With affiliate marketing, it’s better to stick with products that you already enjoy. It’ll keep you honest and it’s easier to sell something that you’re using. If you plan on pitching others, then you should at least try out the product first. Your audience will thank you for it!
Affiliate companies like ShareASale will provide you with a plethora of products you can start promoting right away.
12. Accept Donations
If you want to keep your blog and the value you provide completely free, then you can ask for donations. This is what Wikipedia does to stay online.
It’s worth a shot, especially, if you’re giving away a TON of value but notice that none of your regular readers have purchased any products or services. After all, you have to make a living too.
Got any ideas on how one could make money blogging? Or maybe you’re doing something that’s working for you. Please share it in the comments.
I’m a freelance copywriter and SEO specialist. I aim to empower individuals and businesses with impactful marketing solutions and insights. In my downtime, I recharge by embracing the beauty of nature or cherishing moments with my loved ones. If you found value in this post, please consider sharing it.
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