Introduction to can blogging make you money
Are you thinking of starting a blog and wondering if blogging can make you money? Maybe you are looking for an online side hustle to supplement your income or perhaps even looking to turn blogging into your mind hustle. It’s definitely possible there are thousands of people doing it.
So, can blogging make you money?
Yes, blogging can definitely pay your bills. It can even make you a millionaire. If you stick to it long enough. Blogging is a very lucrative career because it can branch out into many different income streams.
And even many different business ventures. If you are into entrepreneurship and how to make money online, then learning how to make money blogging will move you in the right direction.
Blogging is nothing new. But in certain parts of the world like Africa, it is still considered a hobby and not a real way to make money. The more we can educate our people the more people can become independent and not rely on the government for jobs.
So, we’ve now established that you can make money blogging.
Now we have to answer the next question
How do beginner bloggers make money?
You are dying to know how bloggers make their money. There are a lot of ways to make money blogging. Not all bloggers focus on the same monetization strategies. We are going to go over the most popular ways that bloggers earn an income from blogging.
Blogging is basically just like a normal business. You are for something valuable in exchange for money. If you give someone something that will benefit them, they will gladly pay you for it.
But first things first actually buying a domain and hosting and choosing a Blog name and deciding what to name your name and what you will blog about.
Then you want to write a few blog posts strategically to get traffic to your blog in order to start monetizing and making money
I’m not gonna go into getting your blog set up. I have enough blog posts for you to help get you set up.
Have you wondered how much money you can earn from blogging?
You can earn a lot of money as a blogger. If you apply the proper blogging practices. (Yes there is a right and wrong way to blog.) You can make $100 000 per month and more from blogging. Some bloggers even start earning up to $2 000 per month the first year.
On the flip side. There are also bloggers who earn nothing from blogging. And the reason for that is because of a bunch of things. Like giving up too soon. I actually wrote a post recently about why bloggers fail. You can check it out to make sure you are not making the same mistakes.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure page here.
Now let’s get into how you can make money blogging in 2022
Like I said, There are a lot of ways bloggers can make money. But we will be focusing on the top 7 ways that bloggers make money.
1. Ads
Probably the most obvious and easiest (once you’ve learned how to drive traffic) way to make money blogging. It’s also the most passive way to earn income without doing much work.
But earning money with ads needs a ton of traffic. Which is very hard to do in the beginning. But totally possible once you’ve done the work.
So, how does it work then?
Well, as a blogger you would sign up for an ad network to start placing ads on your site. Most bloggers start out with Google Adsense. And in my opinion, it’s a total waste. They pay peanuts. The mistake we also make is putting ads up too soon.
Rather wait till you have enough traffic to apply to a decent ad network to earn decent money.
Instead, focus on writing quality content to get eyes on your blog and build relationships. Use Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog. And make sure your posts are SEO optimized for Google to rank your blog and send traffic to your site.
Then you can start thinking about monetizing your blog with ads.
Also just know that ads tend to slow down your blog and some viewers don’t like it.
Some of the popular networks are
- Google Adsense- no minimum to apply
- Mediavine – 50 000 monthly page views to apply
- Adthrive – 100 000 minimum page views to apply
Wondering how you get paid?
Pay per impression and pay per click.
Paid per impression means that the reader does not have to click on the ad for the blogger to receive an income. They are paid per impression, which means how many times the ad is seen.
Pay-per-click means every time someone clicks on the ad the blogger receives a small amount of money for that click.
2. Affiliate marketing
Most people nowadays know what Affiliate marketing is. Promoting someone else’s product to an audience who needs it and earning a commission from the sale. Sounds simple and easy enough right?
Well, it’s not as straightforward as it may seem. And it’s a lot harder than we think.
First you have to find a good product, you don’t want to promote a crappy product tobyour audience and risk your reputation. Find a product that wil undoubtedly solve your customer’s problem.
And that means getting to know your audience and their most pressing problem. What are they struggling with? Get to know them. And only then will you know what product they need.
You can find Affiliate programs by signing up to an affiliate network. Or you can reach out to creators directly that sell products suitable to your niche and audience.
These are the the popular Affiliate marketing networks
- Amazon
- Shareshale
- CJ Affiliate
The good thing about affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to wait until you have tons of traffic. You can monetize with affiliate links immediately. Obviously, the more traffic you get to promote your links, the more money you’ll make.
The key to making money with affiliate marketing is, again quality content. And getting your audience to know, like and trust you.
3. Creating your own products
Some of the most successful bloggers earn most of their income from selling their own products. With learning so much about blogging while blogging, they become experts.
They learn easier ways of blogging and make money online. Skills that become valuable and turn them into courses that they can sell.
And so can you. Because on your blogging journey you learn skills. High income skills that people will gladly pay to get to where they want to go quicker.
And that is why some bloggers are killing it with paid products and courses. They find a gap in the market for certain problems. Create a product for it and promote it to an audience that they already know needs it.
Bloggers usually freak out about creating their own products. Mostly because they don’t believe they have any valuable information that people would pay for. And that stops them from starting.
But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You can start by creating something simple as a printable. Then you can move on to guides,ebooks and eventually courses. The more you create,the more confident you’ll become.
The cool thing about creating your own products is you don’t need as much traffic as you do with ads. But of course you want as much traffic as you can get. More traffic means more money when monetization strategies are set in place.
So, when can you implement this monetization strategy?
I would say a year after you start blogging. Although some start sooner. But you learn much more in a year.
- You learn how to actually grow a blog and make money from it.
- Build and nurture your audience
- Get them to know,like and trust you.
- You learn what your audience wants and how you can help them.
- And you need to build an engaging email list.
As you can see it takes a lot more than just creating a product. You need to allow yourself the time to go through all these steps before you can make money with a product.
Related posts:
How to Launch your Blog Successfully in 15 simple steps
4. Sponsorships
Sponsorship is where a company pays you to create a post about their product or brand. It’s usually in line with the type of content you already create. Just remember that you have to disclose that it is a sponsored post.
Getting companies to sponsor you can be a little difficult when you are a beginner blogger and don’t have a following yet. So, build up your following first before approaching sponsored networks.
Blog for at least 6 months, with quality content on your site, and a good amount of followers before thinking of making money with brand deals. And accept deals that are inline with your niche, audience and your brand.
5. Freelancing
Freelancing is very cool because you can start making money immediately by advertising your writing services on your blog and getting clients.
You don’t need a certain amount of pageviews to get started. All you have to do is advertise on your blog and your social media accounts that you offer a certain type of freelance service.
But freelancing comes with some negatives. Meaning trading your time for money. Which in the beginning might not seem like such a bad idea while you wait for your blog to start growing and earning some kind of passive income.
6. Services
Services are almost the same as freelancing, you offer a service, like becoming a virtual assistant or managing other bloggers’ social media accounts, for a fee.
Again, trading your time for money. Not ideal but it’s a cool way to earn an income while you grow your blog and develop a connection with your readers.
Services also help you build relationships with people. And people help you grow.
7. Coaching
Coaching is basically teaching an individual or a group of people about something that you have a lot of knowledge about and is of high value to them.
This monetization strategy usually comes a few years after you become an expert in your field. So it’s not something you can start making money with immediately.
But later on can become a huge income stream. Because you get paid a lot of money for one speaking engagement or teaching one group of people your knowledge.
Coaching also helps you to understand the needs of your audience beter.
Conclusion to can blogging make you money
That’s it. Top 7 ways blogging can make you money.
How do you want to make money? Choose one or two of these that resonate with you the most. Don’t try to implement all of them at once.
Remember that the way you get to make money is by creating quality content. Marketing that content to gain traffic and then monetizing your traffic.
And that answers your question: Can blogging make you money?