There are a variety of ways that you can make money with your blog. Whether you're looking for a hobby or to build an online business, there is one method sure to suit any lifestyle and budget!
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make passive income. It is an excellent option for bloggers looking to monetize their blog who don't want or need the hassle of creating products themselves.
Affiliate marketing is a business model where you can make commission off of other people's products or services. Many vendors offer high commissions, often up to 50%.
Passive income doesn't require you to be on the front lines like a traditional job. All that's required is for you to blog and then, build and engage with your audience in order for them to check out products or services you're recommending.
The first step is joining an affiliate network such as ClickBank, Rakuten, and ShareASale. Promote products you are passionate about on your blog and sign up for your favorite brands' affiliate programs today!
Sell Your Own Products or Services to Readers
If you have your own product or service to sell, then blogging can be a powerful lead generation machine.
For example, if you're an experienced freelance web designer and are looking for new clients, all it takes is writing content about web design on topics that interest website owners who might want your services.
You don't need to "sell" yourself in the blog posts themselves, however there should instead be contact information available where those interested in hiring you could sign up or get more info from them at their leisure.
One of the best ways to create content that is not only informative but also persuasive is by aligning your information for each stage in a potential customer's buying process which we will now go over.
The following are the four steps to make money by selling directly through your blog.
Awareness - This is the stage where people are first becoming aware of your product or service. At this point, they recognize a problem and gain deeper understanding for their needs while becoming aware that there are solutions available to them. Content at this stage helps readers identify problems so that they can then be introduced and shown various potential solutions.
Evaluation - The customer is now actively exploring features, benefits and testimonials in order to find the best solution for their needs. You can create content that educates them about your product or service so they choose you over other providers.
Purchase - The customer is ready to buy and you can make a special offer at this stage. Free trials, discounts, or other specials will do the trick!
By understanding the problems your customers are experiencing, you can craft blog posts that will speak to their needs and help them improve.
Provide Valuable Content - Write content that provides a great deal of value and creates engagement from other readers. Promote your work on social media through various platforms such as Facebook or Twitter for an even broader reach.
Convert Your Visitors To Subscribers
Add a clear call-to-action on your website with an irresistible offer and get visitors to sign up. This will allow you to build a closer relationship with them, and offer more of what they want on an ongoing basis (content that matters).
One way to entice visitors into signing up for your newsletter or blog feed is by placing a clear call-to-action offering high value information products - perfect for addressing their pain points!
Send Your Subscribers Content To Build Trust
Subscribers will have access to exclusive content that's not available anywhere else on the internet.
Planning your email outreach strategy is a crucial step. You'll want to use a schedule that includes promoting something specific early on. A sample could be:
- Email 1: Your email marketing platform will automatically send an email that asks them to confirm signing up to get emails from you. This is an anti-spam measure that ensures they aren’t signed up for a list without knowing it!
- Email 2: A “Thank You” email is automatically sent after they confirm which will give them instant access to the lead magnet they signed up for.
- Email 3: This email arrives about a half-hour after the last. You can give them more information about getting started, give them tips and tricks and any other necessary instructions.
- Email 4: The email could come a day or two after the last and it could contain a brief overview of the solution to the problem that you have identified they are seeking an answer to.
- Email 6: About 2 days after the last email, send a special offer, a free trial, a free consulting session, a free webinar, or some other type of promotion.
- Email 7: 1 to 2 days later, email them additional resources about your products or services that are aligned with the opt-in, more information on your special offer or a link to a relevant blog post on your website.
- Email 8: 1 to 2 days later send a "check-in" message. Be sure this is a personal message so you can touch base and ask for feedback from the subscriber.
- Email 9+: You can schedule these out sometimes a year in advance. Include additional information that’s relevant to the lead magnet and the core topics of your blog.
When you post new content on your blog or want to send other promotions and offers, you can send broadcast emails to send news in real time.
This sample shows how people can create schedules specific to their products by including nurturing emails early on before introducing solutions. Depending on what type of product or service someone sells, there may need some adjustments made so this should act as an example.
Offer Multiple Products Your Audience Will Buy
The reverse funnel strategy can help you sell multiple products or services through your blog. Start with the higher-priced ones first and gradually work down to lower priced items.
The strategy is to reach out and engage your audience by blogging about their specific problems, building a relationship with them via email first, then providing an appropriate solution for the problem.
Start off with your most expensive product line because it will provide you enough revenue to solve all of those other issues that might come up in the future.
The "Pareto Principle" is an economic theory that states 80% of your results typically come from 20% of the work you do. So, it's best to focus on those few customers who will account for a large percentage of your revenue rather than wasting time and resources trying to please everyone else.
For example, there may be between 2 and 20 of your 100 subscribers who will buy high-priced items. You can focus on these high-priced items and sell lower priced items to the other customers you have.
If you want to focus on a high-priced product, make your product valuable. Look at all of your other products and figure out a way to make this one even more special.
If you are a business consultant, and you offer a consulting package for $10,000, tell your client that if they invest $10,000 with you then they will save $15,000 over time.
Offer free webinars to people who subscribe to your newsletter. Give them training or other information that they will not find anywhere else. During the webinar, you can also sell your high-value product.
If you design it well, people will see how good it is and then they will want to buy it. It might be coaching calls, a membership site, a consulting service or an online course.
Make Money Writing
Once you have a blog that people like and you are on social media, you can make money by blogging for other people. Some examples are ghost writing or guest blogging. If you enjoy blogging, it is possible to earn extra money or even start a full-time job at it.
if you blog for a living, people will choose to hire you if they know that you have a big audience. Your skills as a writer and expertise in your area are important, but clients will also hire you because you have a big audience.
Whenever you post something on their blog or website, you will also share it on your social media and get your followers there.
Blogging can be fun and you can earn money. But watch out for companies that want to pay you to promote their products. It might make your audience not trust you anymore if you come off like a salesperson.
You have been giving good information that helps your audience solve their problems. If you start to take jobs where you only give opinions about products for a payment, then people will not trust what you say.
Your reputation is very important as a blogger, so make sure that the jobs you take allow you to give honest reviews of the product.
If you want to write a review for a product and you like it, tell the reader. Tell them that you are getting money for your review.
If you want to be a ghostwriter, there are some things you need to know. You will not get credit for your work. If you do this and write under someone else's name, they will get the credit and money for it.
Your social media following is not important because what you write won't affect your brand. Ghostwriting usually pays less than writing with your name and brand on it, but if that doesn't matter to you then go ahead!
Advertising on Your Blog
Putting ads on your blog can be another way to earn money. It is not the best way because you will earn more with the other ways we’ve mentioned earlier.
If you do not have anything else to sell, or if you are not interested in making blog posts for pay or as an affiliate, consider using ads. This could be a good idea if you want to make a little money while exploring other ways of making money.
When you use ads, the most important thing is to have readers. The more people you have reading your blog, the more people will click on your ads.
It takes about three years before a blog is profitable. Be patient and focus at first on building your brand. You will also be able to make money in the future by monetizing your blog.
Create Consistent Blogging Habits
Blogging means you have to make a lot of content. You need to share it with people. There are things you can do that will help, like making new posts on a regular basis and ensuring that your posts are easy for people to find.
There are many different strategies to blog. One tip that is the same for everyone: you have to write a lot. Your writing skills will improve as you write more.
If you find writing difficult, the more you do it, the easier it will become. Spend time researching and writing without worrying about whether someone likes it or not. Think of it as a skill that you are learning and getting better at.
Another tip is that consistency matters. It is important to post on a regular basis, but it also helps your writing skills. If you write a little each day, you will see improvement quickly. It's like exercise for your body and your brain needs that too to get better at writing.
How to Develop Strong Writing Habits
Step 1 – Create a Goal - Set a goal to write a certain number of words per day. For example, you might want to set your goal at writing 1,000 words per day. You can do this and then push yourself by adding more words if you want.
Some people set goals for themselves. This is a good idea. If you want to write 200 words per day, you can commit to publishing two 500-word posts per week.
Step 2 – Hold Yourself Accountable - It's not easy to set a goal. For example, you need to hold yourself accountable for your work. Sometimes this is hard to do by yourself. You can get help from another blogger or your coach. They will help you stay on track and make sure that you are following through with what you have planned together.
Another idea is to tell people on social media about your goal. Post to your wall that you've set a goal and then report about it. Remember, you will need to be accountable to everyone on social media.
You can also use an app or program that helps you create habits and track your progress. An example is coach.me, which has a habit tracker that you can use for free.
Step 3 – Create a Process - To blog consistently, you need to create a process and schedule. Make a list of the tasks you need to do every week and how long they will take.
Here's a blogging task list example:
- Brainstorm topics using customer data (20 minutes)
- Topics to be covered (20 minutes)
- Write headlines or sub-headlines (20 minutes)
- Write introductions in an inverted pyramid format (30 minutes)
- Write the article body (3 hours)
- Find or create images (1 hour)
- Edit and re-edit (1 hour to 30 minutes a post)
- Plan how you will promote your posts on social media (30 minutes)
You should not do things that are not writing-related, like making a marketing plan, or watching if your work is successful. Just focus on the writing and publishing.
It is good to turn off social media and email because you don't want any distractions while you are writing.
Step 4 – Add Your Tasks to Your Online Calendar - Many people use online calendars to store their appointments. But some people do this for everything, including meetings and things they need to do. This is helpful because you can see what you need to do on the calendar and it keeps you honest about how much time you spend on different things.
In the task list, there are about 7 hours of work. This should be divided throughout the week. If you work on your blog for 1 hour per day, you might make it 2 hours on Monday and Friday because Tuesday through Thursday is when you have to work. But if that doesn't work for your schedule, then you can divide the tasks into 1.5 hours each day instead.
Next, decide when you will write. Some people feel the best in the morning and like to work at that time. If you don't feel good in the morning, try it then anyway. It might be a good time for your brain power. You can also blog anytime during the day, but choose times when there are less distractions so you can focus better on your writing.
Let's think about when we do things. For example, you might find it easier to brainstorm at night after your work is done. But maybe the best time for writing and editing is in the morning?
How Do You Stay On Top Of Your Blogging Schedule?
Plan your diet as well in order to be productive. You might be more productive if you have a second cup of coffee in the morning. Or you might find that you are more productive if you eat a light breakfast. Try out different things and see what works best for you.
Decide when to start writing. You may feel like you are best at it when you just wake up. But, other people might want to wait after they wake up for some coffee and TV. Decide on which one is best for you.
It is important to take breaks when you work. You might want to stand up and stretch your body, or do something else that will clear your mind. When you sit back down to work again, it will be much easier. It is also good for your body.
Developing good blogging habits is important, but so is developing good reading habits. Reading informs your writing. Get into the habit of reading blogs and websites, and make sure to subscribe to your favorite ones.
It can be hard to keep up with everything that's happening in your niche or industry unless you use an app like Flipboard or Feedly that lets you put all of the blogs and sites you read in one place. Set time aside each day to read articles from different blogs so that you stay on top of what's happening in your industry!
You can write down your ideas on paper, or use an app like Evernote. It is important to have your list in one place so you don't lose it! One trick that helps with brainstorming is to sign up for Google Alerts, which will send you emails about the keywords you set up that are related to the content you create.
Now What?
With the strategies you learned in this course, you're ready to take your blogging to the next level.
You’ve learned:
- Find out who your target reader is and create content tailored to them
- Writing captivating blog posts, including planning, drafting, and writing the best content possible
- Sharing your blog posts with the world and maximizing engagement to help you reach your target market
- A variety of monetization strategies you can use to earn a living from your blog efforts
- How to plan, organize, and be disciplined
You need to spend a lot of time on blogging before you see the rewards. It can take years for your blog to get readers and earn money. Prepare for this time investment.
Now, take your action plan, complete your tasks, and schedule your work.
If you've missed any of our posts in the series, you can start here at how to make money blogging and continue reading to learn how to create a profit-making business out of your passion.
